The number of partnership projects for the Russian version of Wikipedia has recently been significantly reduced, as they are “afraid to cooperate” with the portal. Such notice Express in the Russian media Chronicles of the New World program, Stanislav Kozlovsky is the executive director of the non-profit partnership Wikimedia RU, which develops the Russian segment of Wikipedia.
“Now this year we only have one science photo competition, there is nothing else yet.<…>Now everything is pretty bad. People are afraid to cooperate, they think Wikipedia is toxic,” he said.
Until February 2022, according to Kozlovsky, the portal held a large number of competitions on various topics, there were sponsors for them, a prize fund was created, people wrote articles and received prizes for that. Additionally, Wikimedia UK has cooperated with copyright holders regarding the use of content such as photographs.
“Many, for example, RIA Novosti, have given part of their archives under a free license, they are used in Wikipedia. True, in 2011 they did, and then they tried to revoke it, but the license doesn’t allow it,” he said. In addition, Ekho Moskvy*, various newspapers and archives have organized joint projects with Wikipedia.
In July last year, due to the refusal to remove a number of documents from Wikipedia, including those related to the hostilities in Ukraine, Roskomnadzor obligatory search engines mark the portal as a violator of Russian law. In early April 2023, the head of the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia Valery Fadeev asked to block “Wikipedia”. At the same time, in the State Duma spoke against blocking the gate before creating its practical counterpart. April 18, Wikipedia blocking not yet planned for journalists informed Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev.
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