Wikipedia, Human Rights, and Freedom of Speech

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Wikipedia, Human Rights, and Freedom of Speech

• Jimmy Wales
• Wikimania 2008
• Reflections on Freedom and Free Culture

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Freedom of Speech today

• Freedom of Speech used to be mostly about Freedom
  of the Press
  
• In a sense, the abscence of a business
  regulation
  
• Freedom of the Press mattered to most people
  because it helped ensure a diversity of sources
  of information
  
• But most people did not actually have the means
  to publish directly

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Growth of Wikipedia

• What are some factors inhibiting the growth of
  Wikipedia around the world?
  
• Lack of access to computers
• Lack of access to broadband
• Censorship

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Freedom and Knowledge sharing

• FreedomHouse ratings
• Finland (Free) Political 1, Civil Liberties 1
• Albania (Partly Free) Political 3, Civil
  Liberties 3
  
• Tajikistan (Not Free) Political 6, Civil
  Liberties 6

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Freedom and Knowledge sharing

• Articles per million population
• Finland (Free) 6 mln - 20,595
• Albanian (Partly Free) 6 mln- 2,816
• Tajikistan (Not Free) 4.3 million - 1,875

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Censorship goes both ways
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Buekorp
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Freedom of Press is Personal

• When press freedom was violated in the old days,
  it did not tend to suppress education of the
  world about your country
  
• But today violations of press freedom affect
  ordinary citizens who would communicate values of
  basic human dignity to others
  
• War is caused by fear of the other to avoid
  war, allow your citizens to be real to the world

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How can Wikipedia help?

• Wikipedia culture is about free access to high
  quality information
  
• A culture of NPOV
• Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the
  privilege to do so, too. Voltaire
  
• Building this culture builds a culture of
  tolerance of ideas, a culture of willingness to
  examine bad ideas rather than foolishly attempt
  to suppress them