[WikiEN-l] Gomery Inquiry

Thu Apr 7 04:30:22 UTC 2005

Dare I ask what the Gomery Inquiry is? Or would people risk prosecution
for answering that question? :-)

Cheers,
David...

-----Original Message-----
From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org
[mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of
slimvirgin at gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, 7 April 2005 1:46 PM
To: English Wikipedia
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Gomery Inquiry

Interesting. It's difficult to use an anonymous person posting to a
blog as a source, though. The judge is due to decide tomorrow whether
to lift the ban, so we don't have long to wait. It's an interesting
question as to whether a Canadian Wikipedian could simply plead
ignorance of the bans and repeat the blogger's information.
Journalists aren't allowed to plead ignorance, even in cases where the
ban has itself been part of a sealed record and therefore hard to
obtain information about, journalists are nevertheless expected to
make inquiries to find out whether there's a ban, and can be
prosecuted for breaching it even when they say they didn't know about
it.

In reality, they usually do know because they know media law and can
predict which types of cases are likely to attract which types of
bans. But whether a court would extend the ignorance-is-no-defense
principle to a Wikipedia editor, who may not be so familar with media
law and who doesn't have such easy access to court records, would make
an interesting test case. If you're volunteering, Andy ... I've heard
that Canadian jails are very civilized. ;-)

Sarah

On Apr 6, 2005 9:25 PM, AndyL <andyl2004 at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> There is an American website www.captainsquartersblog.com  which has
been
> publishing reports from the inquiry which have been described in
various
> Canadian media as "fairly accurate".
> 
> 
> on 4/6/05 11:12 PM, slimvirgin at gmail.com at slimvirgin at gmail.com
wrote:
> 
> > Legally, Wikipedia as publisher is beyond the scope of the Canadian
> > Criminal Code, because its servers are not in Canada. However, each
> > editor is legally responsible for what they write, and if they are
in
> > Canada could in principle be sued or prosecuted as author of the
> > material, and perhaps as publisher too, as this is a wiki. (Note:
This
> > is not legal advice.)
> >
> > However, if the publication ban is being adhered to by others, it
may
> > mean that there is no published information that Wikipedia could
refer
> > to anyway, bearing in mind the NOR policy.
> >
> > Sarah
> >
> > On Apr 6, 2005 8:46 PM, AndyL <andyl2004 at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> >> How should Wikipedia deal with the publication ban regarding the
Gomery
> >> Inquiry in Canada?
> >>
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