Press release about the Wikistrike

Milan, October 5th, 2011

Wikimedia Italia supports the decision of the Italian Wikimedia community of users and administrators in the Italian language edition of Wikipedia that have temporarily blocked the pages of the free encyclopedia, showing users a communique (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Comunicato_4_ottobre_2011, original in Italian, for the English version see http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Comunicato_4_ottobre_2011/en) explaining the effects that the enactment of the "DDL intercettazioni" ("Wiretapping Act"): in other words the end of the neutrality of Wikipedia, replaced by a series of little more than press releases written by those directly involved.

For precise choice Wikimedia Italia did not interfere with the discussions among the users of Wikipedia, which led to this extreme form of protest, and has no intention to lay claim to any merit, despite being ready if necessary to take the defense of the decision of users of the encyclopedia, after all the purpose of Wikimedia Italia is spreading free culture, and paragraph 29 of the draft law on wiretapping goes completely opposite direction. We published a press release about it last year (http://wikimedia.it/index.php/Comunicato_in_merito_al_cosiddetto_DDL_sulle_intercettazioni, in Italian) that looked forward to the same doubts. Unfortunately, even after fifteen months, that had not led to any change.

As an association, and with the support of Wikimedia Foundation (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/10/04/regarding-recent-events-on-italian-wikipedia/) and other national chapters, we will do anything in our possibilities to support the initiative, hoping that the message sent by the users of Italian Wikipedia will have the biggest eco possible.

Ulteriori informazioni
Wikimedia Italia
 * http://www.wikimedia.it/index.php/10_cose_da_sapere

Contacts
Wikimedia Italia
 * President: Frieda Brioschi &middot; fbrioschi@wikimedia.it &middot; +39 328 0731320
 * Press officer: Maurizio Codogno &middot; mcodogno@wikimedia.it &middot; +39 02 43835926

Wikimedia Italia, via del ronco 3A, 20862 Arcore (MB) - P. IVA IT05599740965 - CF 94039910156