<CPOV> "We are all Diu": Greek Wikipedia, politics & censorship

[Geert Lovink]

Update: article written by Michelle Paulson (Wikimedia Foundation):
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/02/14/wikimedia-foundation-supports-wikipedia-user-subject-to-defamation-lawsuit-in-greece/

elektra pavlaki <elektrapav at yahoo.gr> wrote:

> I stumbled across an interesting issue/controversy that has received a great deal of publicity and I thought u might find it interesting as well.
> 
> Theodore Katsanevas is a Greek academic and politician, who used to be Andreas's Papandreou (former Prime Minister of Greece) son-in law. Two years ago, Katsanevas demanded the removal of part of the content of the biographical Wikipedia article about him and filed a lawsuit against the contributor “Diu” and the GFOSS (Greek Free/Open Source Software Society) for the presumed offenses against his person. The controversial content was a reference in the article to the will of Andreas Papandreou where he referred to Katsanevas as the "shame" for his family. Katsanevas asks the court to impose a 200.000 euros fine to the user and imprisonment for one year.
> 
> What makes this case interesting is that the contributor had documented the reference, providing citations from multiple newspapers covering the topic. According to a relevant discussion that took place in the Greek Wikipedia (http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Βικιπαίδεια:Είμαστε_όλοι_Diu/en), this is the first time worldwide that a politician brings a case to court against a specific Wikipedia contributor.
> 
> User “Diu” stated that this lawsuit does not only target a specific contributor but the project of Wikipedia as a whole, since it’s a clear case of censorship. He also wonders in his interview why Katsanevas did not sue the newspapers that were used as the basis for the article. He concludes, that probably this happens because simply a Wikipedia user makes an easier target.
> 
> Elektra