Defying ChiCom Censorship

At last, one of the "big" Internet companies is refusing to kowtow to Communist China's repression of free speech. And Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia -- which is currently blocked by the Great Firewall -- is challenging others to reverse course and put principles above pounds.

Wales said censorship was 'antithetical to the philosophy of Wikipedia. We occupy a position in the culture that I wish Google would take up, which is that we stand for the freedom for information, and for us to compromise I think would send very much the wrong signal: that there's no one left on the planet who's willing to say "You know what? We're not going to give up." '

Wikipedia's entry on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 includes the government's official claim that 200-300 died and the Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross's estimate of 2,000-3,000 deaths.

Wales said: 'I think it's an interesting question whether they're prepared to understand the difference between advocating one set of figures or another versus simply reporting on what the controversy is. I can understand that they would be upset - although of course I still don't think they have any moral right to ban anything - if we were pushing one set of figures in contrast to their objections, but if we are reporting both, to me that's exactly what an encyclopaedia should do and they should be comfortable with that.'

Let's hope Wales and Wikipedia stick to this position. And it's actions like this why BaT continues to link to Wikipedia, despite objections that the content can sometimes be tainted by politics -- and why we've considered for some time now to stop linking to Yahoo! news stories.

We don't expect less from an Alabama boy (and Auburn graduate) like Jimbo Wales.