Malaysia should resist censorship temptation, says Wikipedia founder
By Lee Wei Lian
Wales said that while censorship was tempting, it was no longer a valid option for governments to consolidate their hold on power by controlling what people know.
“Censorship is counter-productive,” he said in his speech at the World Capital Markets Symposium here.
“In the Malaysian context, for example, this is a country that has a fairly mixed record, the Internet is fairly uncensored but there is still some censorship in this country and I think we are beginning to see that it is no longer an effective strategy, certainly not an effective strategy when we think about economic growth, when we think about prosperity, when you think about making sure that the people have the information they need, make good decisions in their lives; it’s absolutely important that we have a very open flow of information.”
He said it was important that people be able to put out information so that “fellow citizens have the knowledge they need so they can’t be oppressed.”
Wales said later at a press conference that he met Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in New York last week and based on discussions felt that Malaysia was “moving in the right direction” although the road could get “bumpy”.
“I appreciate the prime minister’s comments,” he said.
He noted that governments had to contemplate the risk that they may lose “some power” by being open but the benefits of an open society would eventually bring progress.
“It is important to have openness, to have checks and balances,” he said, noting that while Wikipedia was once banned in China, it has now been reinstated and he is on good terms with Chinese government officials.
He also said that he has not been approached by Malaysian government officials over content in Wikipedia.
Malaysia has committed itself in principle to no censorship of the Internet but maintains relatively tight control over the media via a licensing regime and has allowed major media outlets to be owned by political parties.
Wales drew a line however between censorship and responsible journalism, saying that he had mixed feelings about expose website Wikileaks, with which he has no links.
“Censorship is the use of force to prevent publication of information,” he said, stressing that the media should exercise “editorial judgment” and be thoughtful and ensure that information they publish does not cause harm.
The social media veteran also remarked that he was concerned about the health of local reporting in the wake of numerous closures of media outlets in the US.
He said the emergence of the “apps” model on mobile devices like the iPad could help local media regain financial viability.
“It allows for genuine micropayments — an app for people to subscribe to newspapers,” he said.
Wales hoped more people would contribute to the Malay-language community in Wikipedia which currently has about 71,000 articles in comparison with over three million for English. He estimated that 250,000 articles are required for a “fairly comprehensive encyclopaedia.”
Wikipedia is run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organisation that relies on public donations with the aim of creating a global encyclopaedia using social media.
“Wikipedia began as a great experiment and a radical idea that everyone is given free access to contribute to the sum of total knowledge,” he said.
He said the foundation was in an expansionary phase with a budget of about US$20 million (RM62 million) for next year. It employs about 40 people and plans to open an office in India.
According to Wales, it is the 9th most popular website in Malaysia, Japan and Iran and 6th most popular in Germany and the US.
Comments