Jimmy Respublika interview March 2013

Russian version here.

Jimmy Wales disowns Massimov patronage "He has merely publicly praised the project" - Wikipedia founder dismisses accusations of journalists in his address.

Yevgeniya Plakhina / March 29, 2013, № 9 (335)

Controlling the flow of information in the Internet age - it is not only useless but dangerous. That is the view of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. In an exclusive interview with "Republic" Mr. Wales shared his opinion on the information policy of the Kazakh government, the funding of Wikibilim and the importance of freedom of expression and exchange of information.

Preamble

A few words as a preamble. Jimmy Wales attracted attention to Kazakhstan at the end of 2012, when the western press, and later the national press, reported the possible connection of the founder of Wikipedia with the Kazakh government. Western journalists from The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and Examiner criticized Wales for his close friendship with Tony Blair, an adviser to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and for his support of a project run by the Kazakhstan public fund Wikibilim, funded by the State Fund "Samruk-Kazyna". The fund, headed by Rauan Kenzhehanuly, named by The Telegraph as a former government official, was created two years ago. Wikibilim took on the apparently worthy goal of filling Wikipedia with Kazakh material. But the whole point is how it is achieved. The basic principle of Wikipedia - to rely on the existence of private donations and to ban government subsidies - appears to have been [violated] in the case of Kazakhstan.

So, our Western colleagues found that Wikibilim has ten full-time employees who receive regular salaries - a rarity for any [non-commercial organization]. In addition, according to the Examiner, Samruk-Kazyna allocated 204 million tenge ($ 1.36 million) to the project Wikibilim - Kazakh Wikipedia. (Although Rauan Kenzhehanuly in an interview to Forbes Kazakhstan magazine said that the sum amount to $ 50 million tenge ($ 204,000) against the $204 mln stated by Examiner). The money was allegedly spent on paid editing (71 signed contracts), digitization of documents and the right to post the content of the Kazakh state encyclopedia (mostly verbatim) in the Kazakh Wikipedia.

But to help Wikibilim activists work even better, Samruk-Kazyna [the Sovereign Wealth Fund] provided them with 100 laptops, and Nokia provided 50 mobile phones.

In general, officials from Kazakhstan once again proved that [international rules are not written for them] and Western journalists have got one more reason to show, with collaborations of their government. But most importantly, the image of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia wound up under attack , which has gained immense popularity in part because [revision of materials placed in it is accessible to any reader].

"Republic" [has been] trying to clarify the situation in an interview with Rauan Kenzhehanuly. However, after Mr. Kenzhehanuly agreed to comment, he stopped picking up the phone. I had to go directly to the hero of this scandal, the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales. He was head of democratic NGOs and agreed to answer our questions by email.

"We Will Not Make Compromises"

Mr. Wales, the Western press has accused the Wikimedia Foundation and you having a personal relationship with the Kazakh president. Do you not find it contradictory having such a cooperation with the Wikibilim public fund, which is funded by state which in 2012 was included in a list of Internet enemies international journalist organization "Reporters without Borders» (RSF) and which occupies 160th place in the index of press freedom RSF?

- Wikimedia Foundation is not supported in any form by the Government of Kazakhstan. We have categorically rejected any support. The Daily Mail had to remove your material (the paper edition talked about the relationship between Jimmy Wales, Tony Blair and President Nursultan Nazarbayev - auth.), and Telegraph had to make [corrections] to the material.

However the official media in Kazakhstan disseminates information about the projects of public fund Wikibilim performed under the auspices of the presidential administration, Karim Massimov. You know about this?

- Kazakh-Wikipedia is wholly owned and operated by Foundation Wikimedia, which is located in California, in the United States, and is not under the control or patronage of Karim Massimov in any shape or form. He's only publicly praised the project, which to me is completely fine, and that, of course, I can in no way control!

And what about the fact that the header Wikibilim says the opposite? At the top of the site clearly states that the projects are carried out under the auspices of the fund Karim Massimov. [Do you know about this? ]

- Wikibilim is absolutely independent. They do not [control] and do not [manage] the Kazakh-Wikipedia. Wikibilim received support from Open Society Institute and from Radio Free Europe. The grant from the Samruk-Kazyna Fund was issued without any obligations [regarding] the Wikipedia content (which Wikibilim in any [event] does not control). ( Wikibilim did a big project [with funds from SK--author] on import of Kazakh-old encyclopedia Wikipedia, and the project has been completed to date

In an interview with The Telegraph You said that you were "worried about potential problems arising" in connection with Wikibilim. What problems do you have in mind? For example, Kazakhstan's Internet users are concerned about the information that Kazakh-Wikipedia is biased in favor of the official point of view, and will bring to nothing the criticism.

- The government of Kazakhstan has no power over the Kazakh-Wikipedia. All pages are open for editing as they are open for editing in any other language. As with the versions in any other language, problems can arise and occur as users discuss and dispute the content, but we totally reject the possibility of state control over the content of Wikipedia in any language. Wikipedia will always try to provide independent votes and standing up for freedom of expression and transparency around the world.

Once again, that it has finally become clear: the press materials that Wikibilim control of Kazakh Wikipedia, are not true. They do not create new content for Wikipedia. They are involved in advocacy activities in order to attract more people to the process of editing.

I assume that, as with all the old encyclopedias, problems may arise in the context of Kazakhstan will be some problems associated with the engagement of the encyclopedia in the past with the state. "Liberation" of this encyclopedia - moving it to the Kazakh-speaking Wikipedia, where it will be possible to modify, alter and update it - is a big step forward for Kazakhstan! I am very happy that the old encyclopedia is released from state control. I urge all people who speak Kazakh, to connect (to the editing process) and help us to shed light on the world.

You talk about government control. Do you know about the situation of press freedom in Kazakhstan? You've heard about the recent cases of harassment of critical media outlets, including the "Republic"? Do you have a position on this?

- Yes. Few years, I keep an eye on the situation in Kazakhstan. I am aware of the recent cases of attacks on the press, and I condemn them completely. The Kazakh government says it wants to move towards openness and democracy, but argues that it is difficult and will take some time. The worst thing that they can do by following this path, it is to control the flow of information. In the era of internet it will only lead to unrest. People not only have the right to freedom of expression, and now they have the means to obtain information, whether the government likes it or not. Bullying the press will only lead to a retaliatory strike on the part of citizens and "Kazakh Spring", in which the old regime will be swept away to the side. The only hope for them to appropriate and peaceful transition (to democracy) - this is to allow people to speak freely.

According to the so-called law on the Internet, adopted July 2009, all Internet resources and other sites are filled by users, equal to the mass media. Do you agree with this definition of Wikipedia?

- I do not have sufficient knowledge about the law in Kazakhstan, to comment on the relatively narrow issue, but I can talk about the general philosophical position in my part. Any form of expression - from newspapers to television station, a personal blog, the corrections to Wikipedia and tweets - is equal. Protection of the fundamental right to freedom of expression should be applicable to all forms of expression. I mean that, if the equation of a blog to the media means that blogs are as much subject to censorship, as well as traditional media, the problem is not to equate the definitions, and especially in the censorship.

The law also provides for the liability of the site for the publication of information on the site, regardless of its physical location. Moreover, it gives the Kazakh authorities right to request removal from the site information is not relevant to Kazakhstan legislation. If the demand is not met, the site may be blocked in Kazakhstan, which, in particular, has happened to the popular blogging platform LiveJournal. Wikipedia Will such concessions?

- We will never remove a valuable encyclopedic information on a single request of the authorities of any country, including Kazakhstan. We have several years banned in China, and we have never compromised. We're not going to compromise with Kazakhstan.

From the Editors

"Akorda never regretted the money [it paid] to powder its nose for Western society"

Recall that Akorda never regretted the money [it paid] to powder its nose for Western society,. It is known that the government of Kazakhstan is almost openly supported morally and financially so-called friends of Kazakhstan among politicians (current and retired) in the U.S., Germany, Poland and Italy. In exchange for this assistance "friends" touted Nazarbayev and his policies at home and work "wedding generals" on various inspirational events held in the country, giving them the appearance of planetary scale events.

In recent years, all records of the "friends" beat former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who officially receives millions for general advice, but in reality it helps Kazakh authorities "sort out" numerous problems. Since there are more and more trouble, we can assume that Tony Blair is permanently employed.

In addition, Astana regularly pays western journalists for articles about a prosperous democratic Kazakhstan. Image Film about a young country are in the air leading TV channels of the world. Only the Internet until recently did not fall under the close attention of Kazakh officials. But then the situation changed technologically advanced Karim Massimov - is with him in the government of the idea of a Kazakh Wikipedia. Of course, honor and praise to Jimmy Wales, if he could not resist the temptation, to which many could not resist the powerful. But something tells us that this scandal is to be continued.