German politician closes down Wikipedia.de

Sun 16 November 2008 22:18, Bas van den Beld

No, this is not China, this is Europe. Yet, a big website is being censored. Wikipedia had to close down their German homepage today because off the interverance off a German member of Parliament.

German politician closes down Wikipedia.de

Left wing politician Lutz Heilmann went to court to close down Wikipedia.de because off the page describing his own past. According to Wikipedia Heilmann was a former Stasi-employee during the last five years off the GDR. On the page however there was more information which was, to say the least, not very 'charming' for the politician.

The member of parliament for the left wing party "Die Linke" didn't disagree with just the Stasi-part, there was more. German magazin Focus Online revealed that Heilmann was also unhappy with parts about him not completing his university degree and a past with involvement in porn.

Heilmann went to court and the judge agreed pressed charges against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., resulting in a preliminary injuction. Now wikipedia.de cannot link to de.wikipedia.org which is hosted in the US and can therefore not be 'touched'. As a matter of fact, the information about Heilmann could be reached trought this connection without any problem and was also placed on the english version.

According to Germancowboys Heilmann got cold feet on Sunday and issued a press release stating that he wouldn't take any further steps against Wikimedia Deutschland. Presumably because the legal steps were to complicated...

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