Open letter to Jimmy Wales founder of wikipedia

This is copy of my letter to Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia :

To Jimmy Wales,

Thank you for having created wikipedia but I have to report serious problems with nationalistic french administrators that have taken over the administration of wiki in french. They are going on a witchhunt against Bretons if they do not have a "national" that is a Paris recognition !

With a family name such as WALES, you are aware of an existing region of France : Brittany. Similar to Wales in the UK, Brittany has a Celtic language called Breton and there is, thanks to you, a Breton wiki with 26 000 entries.

I am the director of (voir le site) a Breton news agency that I founded 8 years ago after quitting the International Herald Tribune where I was the web site technical director. Agence Bretagne Press became part of the media scene in Brittany. It works a little bit like wikipedia since we are non-profit and supported by our readers. It is also participative since anybody can participate as a local correspondant or by sending press releases that we aggregate.

Today my entry "Philippe Argouarch" has been suppressed by an administrator on a basis of a vote. Some people have voting rights only on the basis that they have contributed or mofified 50 entries to the wikipedia in French language. Anybody after a little bit of work can become a wikipedian with these rights.

The main argument for the suspension was that my "notoriety" is regional not national. To have an entry in wiki, you need to have a national recognition. A lot of Breton people have a Breton notoriety only, the same for Welshmen or Scotts that are known in Wales or Scotland but not in London. It is like if someone having done something worse recording in California was suspended because he or she is not known in the United State as the whole !

The wikipedia in french shows quiet a few nationalistic interpretations of history. You just need to compare the English version of "Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier" with the wiki version in french. In the English version, the third line states clearly that the Duchy of Brittany lost its independence because of this military defeat. In the french version, only at the bottom, the text presents what is called "a Breton nationalist theory" on the duchy loss of independence ! Of course if you change this, some zealous chauvinist reader will rectify to his own version of french history. To recall, the breton history is not taught in school.

I hope you will read this mail and contact the wiki french administrators to ask them to stop any nationalistic approach and whitch hunt against Breton nationalists. History and encyclopedias should not be imposed by majority rule but by, and only by, the search for truth. Let me end by this quote from Albert Camus : "Democracy is not the rule of majority but the protection of minorities". The truth on wikipedia cannot and should not be decided by majority rule.

Best regards

Philippe Argouarch

director

agence bretagne presse