Wikipedia site in Oz refugee row
p2pnet news | politics:- Australia’s Refugee Review Tribunal is under attack by the Federal Magistrates Court, “for relying on the website Wikipedia to reject a protection visa,” says news.com.au.
Last year the tribunal refused an Iranian’s application for a protection visa because it didn’t accept his claim he’d converted to Christianity, “a move that put his life in danger in predominantly Muslim Iran,” says the story.
What’s upsetting the court is the fact the tribunal, “based its decision on information and material sourced from a Wikipedia website,” it says, going on:
Applying for the protection visa, the Iranian said he had begun developing anti-Islamic thoughts after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and had been introduced to the Christian faith by friends in about 2004.
He said he used to sell Christian books to raise extra cash and attend the Armenian Church in Rusht.
Asked what would happen if he returned to Iran, the man said: ‘I will be arrested and killed, firstly for selling these books and secondly for converting to Christianity’.”
However, federal magistrate Murray McInnis said the tribunal misinterpreted the applicant’s claim to have attended an Armenian Church to be a claim to have attended the Armenian Apostolic Church, says news.com.au.
“It was entirely unclear on the material whether the applicant had claimed to have attended an Apostolic or an Evangelical Armenian Church,” it has McInnis saying, adding:
“The tribunal took into account an irrelevant consideration, namely information/material contained in the 111.armeniapedia.org website. The Tribunal’s reliance on the information/material contained in www.armeniapedia.org was illogical and/or irrational and/or unreasonable.”
Also See:
news.com.au – Refugee tribunal hit for relying on Wikipedia, July 20, 2007
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July 23rd, 2007 at 10:48 am
if i could not use wikipedia as a reference in my final degree project then why should it be valid in a legal case.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:58 am
It wasn’t, actually – it was from a site that *claimed* to be Wikipedia-related, but wasn’t.
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:52 pm
For the sake of making sure this confused statement is highlighted, indeed, David Gerard is right– Armeniapedia has no relation whatsoever to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. They use the same software, however the site is not actually related.
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Armeniapedia.org has absolutely no relationship to Wikipedia.
As often, journalists prefer some juicy title to actual fact checking.