[Foundation-l] Re: [Wikipedia-l] Korean Wikipedia under National Security Law?

Thu Jan 5 02:48:26 UTC 2006

Puzzlet Chung wrote:

>I am Puzzlet Chung, one of the administrators in Korean Wikipedia.
>
>User:WonYong (also in en.wp) in Korean Wikipedia claims that Korean
>Wikipedia should follow South Korean National Security Law so that the
>contents potentially able to threat the nation (i.e. South Korea)
>should be censored. He made National Security violation templates, to
>tag "anti-State" articles which should be deleted:
>
>http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Security
>http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Security2
>
>WonYong insists that it is South Korea that try to conserve Korean
>language and protect it from extinction, hence both administration and
>contents of Korean Wikipedia should follow South Korean laws, and
>Korean language speakers who is not South Korean citizens don't have
>anything to do with it. He states that North Korea is not recognized
>by South Korea as a nation but a "band of mafias," (the statement of
>which is not true, since North Korea is a member of UN, and relation
>between two Koreas has changed), and doesn't deserve for Korean
>Wikipedia to reflect its POV.
>
>The problem is that some users would agree to his point of view. Out
>of two Korean [[names of Korea]], some South Koreans relate "Chosŏn"
>with North Korea and Communism. They think equal juxtaposition of two
>names, (juxtapose the names when they have to, of course), as not
>satisfying Natural Point of View as in South Korea, where the majority
>of the Korean Wikipedia users live in, and where the server is located
>as well. Although "Chosŏnmal" is the name of Korean language called
>not only by North Koreans, but majority of Chinese Koreans and some
>Japanese Koreans, some find "Chosŏnmal" aggressive and inappropriate
>to use it in some articles.
>
>I am a South Korean citizen myself, but as far as I understand
>Wikipedian policy of NPOV, WonYong's activity threats NPOV more than
>the "Evil Wikipedia" would threat the existence of South Korea, not
>like what he might think, as long as Wikipedia is not a some kind of
>Communists' propaganda. But I've started to seriously consider about
>moving DB server back to Florida and "foreigning" the site,
>contributed by so-called foreigns and South Koreans who's not afraid
>of South Korean laws.
>
>Regards,
>
>Puzzlet Chung
>
This is indeed very bad and flies against everything wikipedia stands 
for! I am also mailing this mail to the foundation list as this seems to 
go against everything the foundation stands for.

Waerth/Walter