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This article might be more informative although I can't say how accurate it is: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/wikipedia-suspends-access-to-ani-defamati

by jprete 2y ago

This article might be more informative although I can't say how accurate it is: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/wikipedia-suspends-access-to-ani-defamation-case-page-following-delhi-hc-order/article68778075.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/wikipedia-suspends-ac...

mrlongroots 2y ago
Some context that is essentially personal opinion, take it for what it's worth: It's not that ANI is an absolutely non-partisan and an objective outlet. They do lean pro-government, but the yardstick being applied here is not consistent at all. No Indian news outlet is great by that yardstick, but one is being called an absolute sham, and those who consistently take anti-establishment stances, often without merit, barely get a footnote. Now you could argue that Wikipedia is volunteer-driven, and you could submit an edit, but it is hard. During the farmers' protests ~3 years ago, articles were worded in a manner that led one to believe that deaths by natural causes among the protestors were somehow caused by the protests. I just checked the article as I was writing this response, and there is still a detailed section titled "fatalities" that mostly documents deaths from natural causes. I tried sending in edits for some of this back in the day but faced an uphill battle against other contributors and gave up because I had a day job to get to. None of this justifies a page being blocked, especially outside Indian jurisdiction, but it would be unwise to ignore the broader context about the website being an ideological battleground and not being able to pull off the right balance.
- albert_e 2y ago
  > those who consistently take anti-establishment stances, often without merit, barely get a footnote "anti-establishment" as in holding the government accountable and asking questions of them -- irrespective of which party is in power? isn't that the job of news media? if they are doing it consistently - good on them. why does it need a footnote or disclaimer? I am sure there is enough content to file under a "Controversies and Crticism" section on the page of every anti-establishment media house. Volunteers are free to add.
  - mrlongroots 2y ago
    > "anti-establishment" as in holding the government accountable I'm all for holding the government accountable, but the apt metaphor for some of the cited outlets would be that they protest for a road where the government hasn't built one, and protest for the tree where they chopped one to build a road. > Volunteers are free to add. I tried addressing this in my initial response. I have nothing more to add.
    - defrost 2y ago
      > but the apt metaphor for some of the cited outlets would be that they protest for [ opposites ] You might be confused about media outlets. They are not homogenous, they have many people working for them, and their primary task is covering what's happening; both those parties that are pro tree and those parties that are pro road.
      - mrlongroots 2y ago
        And I trust and hope that I am able to make that distinction before I lay out my allegations :). I don't want this to become a game of "supplying the evidence" because that also becomes a game of the "skeptical party" DoSing the "earnest party". What I said was a best-effort distillation of my takeaways from years of following Indian news media, both free and paid.

by jprete 2y ago

mrlongroots 2y ago

Some context that is essentially personal opinion, take it for what it's worth: It's not that ANI is an absolutely non-partisan and an objective outlet. They do lean pro-government, but the yardstick being applied here is not consistent at all. No Indian news outlet is great by that yardstick, but one is being called an absolute sham, and those who consistently take anti-establishment stances, often without merit, barely get a footnote. Now you could argue that Wikipedia is volunteer-driven, and you could submit an edit, but it is hard. During the farmers' protests ~3 years ago, articles were worded in a manner that led one to believe that deaths by natural causes among the protestors were somehow caused by the protests. I just checked the article as I was writing this response, and there is still a detailed section titled "fatalities" that mostly documents deaths from natural causes. I tried sending in edits for some of this back in the day but faced an uphill battle against other contributors and gave up because I had a day job to get to. None of this justifies a page being blocked, especially outside Indian jurisdiction, but it would be unwise to ignore the broader context about the website being an ideological battleground and not being able to pull off the right balance.

albert_e 2y ago
> those who consistently take anti-establishment stances, often without merit, barely get a footnote "anti-establishment" as in holding the government accountable and asking questions of them -- irrespective of which party is in power? isn't that the job of news media? if they are doing it consistently - good on them. why does it need a footnote or disclaimer? I am sure there is enough content to file under a "Controversies and Crticism" section on the page of every anti-establishment media house. Volunteers are free to add.
- mrlongroots 2y ago
  > "anti-establishment" as in holding the government accountable I'm all for holding the government accountable, but the apt metaphor for some of the cited outlets would be that they protest for a road where the government hasn't built one, and protest for the tree where they chopped one to build a road. > Volunteers are free to add. I tried addressing this in my initial response. I have nothing more to add.
  - defrost 2y ago
    > but the apt metaphor for some of the cited outlets would be that they protest for [ opposites ] You might be confused about media outlets. They are not homogenous, they have many people working for them, and their primary task is covering what's happening; both those parties that are pro tree and those parties that are pro road.
    - mrlongroots 2y ago
      And I trust and hope that I am able to make that distinction before I lay out my allegations :). I don't want this to become a game of "supplying the evidence" because that also becomes a game of the "skeptical party" DoSing the "earnest party". What I said was a best-effort distillation of my takeaways from years of following Indian news media, both free and paid.