Wikipedia has disabled its Italian Web site in protest against a privacy law drafted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government which would impose new restrictions on newspapers and Internet pages and curb police wiretaps.
The online encyclopedia warned it may shut its Italian site permanently because of provisions in the law forcing Web sites to correct content deemed detrimental to a person’s image within 48 hours of a complaint, with no right of appeal.
Wikipedia’s move coincided with rallies in central Rome on Wednesday against the law, as parliament met to discuss an amendment which would curb Italian newspapers’ rights to publish police wiretaps during preliminary investigations.
Photo: Reuters
Protesters gathered near parliament with their mouths taped shut.
“The very pillars on which Wikipedia has been built — neutrality, freedom and verifiability of its contents — are likely to be heavily compromised,” said a letter posted by the “Users of Wikipedia” on its Italian site — which was blocked to searches.
“The obligation to publish on our site the correction ... without even the right to discuss and verify the claim, is an unacceptable restriction of the freedom and independence of Wikipedia,” it said.
Berlusconi, who began trying to toughen privacy laws soon after coming to power for a third term in 2008, says the restrictions on the media and Web sites are needed to ensure the rights of private citizens, but journalist groups and other opponents accuse the government of scrambling to cover up corruption with laws that threaten basic freedom of expression.
The draft bill has been held up in parliament for more than a year, but the government has revived it at a time when embarrassing leaked wiretaps from a prostitution probe in southern Italy are adding to Berlusconi’s legal problems.
The wiretapped conversations published by newspapers and online media said the 75-year-old billionaire boasted of “doing eight girls” in a night and joked that with all his sexual activity he was only prime minister “in my spare time.”
Berlusconi faces three corruption trials and one on charges of having sex with an underage prostitute, which has filled newspapers with lurid allegations of orgies at his residence near Milan.
Berlusconi denies all wrongdoing and says he is being persecuted by left-wing magistrates determined to force him from power.
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