Kurdish Wikipedia Filtered in Iran
Word from Iran has it that parts of Wikipedia are censored for access from within the country. The English language version of the user-edited encyclopedia was blocked for a few weeks but was recently re-opened, my sources tell me. The Kurdish version is still blocked however, and can not be accessed at all from within Iran.
Iran?s Kurdish minority is a constant worry for the Iranian central regime, when some of the people have refused to assimilate into the mainstream of national life and does, along with their fellow Kurds in adjacent regions of Iraq and Turkey, seek either regional autonomy or the outright establishment of an independent Kurdish state in the region.
It appears not only the Chinese are afraid of the power of wikis, although their movements are more closely monitored by the NGOs, the international press and the blogging digerati.
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The problem is that with the Kurdish separatist movement comes a lot of fabrication of facts. In here I am not talking about what the Iranian or the Turkish governments have done in order to stop the separatists i.e. cracking down on them, mass killings, etc. I am talking about general history, culture and identity that are being ‘created’ in order to give a sense of Kurdish ‘national’ identity to the Kurds and making the idea of separatism more appealing. Wikipedia is an excellent way to spread unverifiable yet legitimate looking information on Internet.
Islamic Republic is already known for filtering many websites including those against national security as well as any anti-Islamic republic websites therefore it shouldn’t really be a surprise that they are blocking the Kurdish wikipedia.
Rayis
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@Rayis: While it may not be a surprise that Wikipedia is censored, I do believe that Iranian censorship receives less attention than, for instance, China’s.
You might well be right about fabrication, but from my point-of-view the international community should put more focus on the Iranian regime’s behavior, and put pressure on them to loosen their grip.
Fabrications are best fought with fact – not censorship.
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So I want to know does any body else use wikipedia and what for?
what was the most informatibve artical you found there?
What was the wierdest one you found?
I use wikipedia mostly durring my lunch time at work to just read up on stuff. the most informative artical I found was on the mineing and refineing
process for copper (because I learned about the job I have, and got to show off to co-workers ;p) the most interesting was probably on cheese witch I
actualy e-mailed to my self so I could finish reading it after work.
oh well, got wiki?
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Hi
I’m an Iranian who lives in Italy by now. Iran gov is so dictatorate and totalite regime ever made and created in the universe. Even, I prefer to live among Taliban forces but not Iran. I escaped from iran because of censoring in my job, Photojournalist, photography and theatre.
By the way, nice to visit your blog.Ali Aghakhani
Italia
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The problem is that with the Kurdish separatist movement comes a lot of fabrication of facts. In here I am not talking about what the Iranian or the Turkish governments have done in order to stop the separatists i.e. cracking down on them, mass killings, etc. I am talking about general history, culture and identity that are being ‘created’ in order to give a sense of Kurdish ‘national’ identity to the Kurds and making the idea of separatism more appealing. Wikipedia is an excellent way to spread unverifiable yet legitimate looking information on Internet.
Islamic Republic is already known for filtering many websites including those against national security as well as any anti-Islamic republic websites therefore it shouldn’t really be a surprise that they are blocking the Kurdish wikipedia.
Rayis
Comment by Rayis — December 12, 2006 @ 00:04
@Rayis: While it may not be a surprise that Wikipedia is censored, I do believe that Iranian censorship receives less attention than, for instance, China’s.
You might well be right about fabrication, but from my point-of-view the international community should put more focus on the Iranian regime’s behavior, and put pressure on them to loosen their grip.
Fabrications are best fought with fact – not censorship.
Comment by Jonathan — December 13, 2006 @ 12:05
So I want to know does any body else use wikipedia and what for?
what was the most informatibve artical you found there?
What was the wierdest one you found?
I use wikipedia mostly durring my lunch time at work to just read up on stuff. the most informative artical I found was on the mineing and refineing
process for copper (because I learned about the job I have, and got to show off to co-workers ;p) the most interesting was probably on cheese witch I
actualy e-mailed to my self so I could finish reading it after work.
oh well, got wiki?
Comment by Myles — December 20, 2006 @ 21:27
Hi
I’m an Iranian who lives in Italy by now. Iran gov is so dictatorate and totalite regime ever made and created in the universe. Even, I prefer to live among Taliban forces but not Iran. I escaped from iran because of censoring in my job, Photojournalist, photography and theatre.
By the way, nice to visit your blog.
Ali Aghakhani
Italia
Comment by Alireza.A — November 27, 2007 @ 11:45