Meatplow
08-24-2007, 02:29 AM
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2013984.htm?section=australia
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says Prime Minister John Howard did not ask any of his staff to edit online public encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Staff from the department have been found to have made edits to Wikipedia entries on topics such as the "children overboard" affair.
Treasurer Peter Costello's page was also edited, removing a reference to the nickname "Captain Smirk".
The Defence Department has blocked staff from editing the open access encyclopedia, amid revelations they had made more than 5,000 changes.
The changes, discovered using the WikiScanner program, range from removing anti-Liberal Party comments, to correcting factual information about the Australian Defence Force.
An internal inquiry has been launched but the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says the changes could have come from a number of different organisations using the same internet protocol address.
The Prime Minister's office refused to confirm it would also blocked staff from editing Wikipedia, saying it was necessary to track down what had happened first.
Chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia Dale Clapperton says the site can be edited by anyone but there should be ethical considerations as well.
"You also have to ask yourself whether it's a responsible and reasonable use of taxpayer dollars to have public servants trying to sanitise entries on Wikipedia using taxpayer-paid resources to make their point of view more acceptable to the current Government," he said.
But Mr Clapperton says the very nature of Wikipedia means the edits are only temporary.
"It's entirely possibly and probably likely that someone would then later come along look at the edits made to it by the Prime Minister's office and decided that the article was better as it used to be and those changes would've actually been reversed," he said.
Would you really put it past political staff to edit a wikipedia page in the best interests of their employer?
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says Prime Minister John Howard did not ask any of his staff to edit online public encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Staff from the department have been found to have made edits to Wikipedia entries on topics such as the "children overboard" affair.
Treasurer Peter Costello's page was also edited, removing a reference to the nickname "Captain Smirk".
The Defence Department has blocked staff from editing the open access encyclopedia, amid revelations they had made more than 5,000 changes.
The changes, discovered using the WikiScanner program, range from removing anti-Liberal Party comments, to correcting factual information about the Australian Defence Force.
An internal inquiry has been launched but the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet says the changes could have come from a number of different organisations using the same internet protocol address.
The Prime Minister's office refused to confirm it would also blocked staff from editing Wikipedia, saying it was necessary to track down what had happened first.
Chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia Dale Clapperton says the site can be edited by anyone but there should be ethical considerations as well.
"You also have to ask yourself whether it's a responsible and reasonable use of taxpayer dollars to have public servants trying to sanitise entries on Wikipedia using taxpayer-paid resources to make their point of view more acceptable to the current Government," he said.
But Mr Clapperton says the very nature of Wikipedia means the edits are only temporary.
"It's entirely possibly and probably likely that someone would then later come along look at the edits made to it by the Prime Minister's office and decided that the article was better as it used to be and those changes would've actually been reversed," he said.
Would you really put it past political staff to edit a wikipedia page in the best interests of their employer?