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;<big>The BBC and A Game of Saints</big>
;<big>#WhereIsBassel – A global protest against unfair detention and disappearance of Bassel Khartabil</big>


:''This post was written by Robin Owain. The Welsh version is [[Main Page/cy|here]]''
[[File:Bassel Safadi, Seoul, 2010.jpg|thumb|upright|Bassel Khartabil has been imprisoned in Syria since 15 March 2012.]]
The Jimmy Wales Foundation invites you to join the global protest for the #WhereIsBassel campaign on the [https://www.facebook.com/events/1585961515027211/ 19th March in London] (Marble Arch at 2pm), Paris, Berlin, Boston, San Francisco and more.


[[File:Saint Non's Chapel - Fenster 5 St.David.jpg|thumb|upright|left|St David, patron saint of Wales, in a 1930s stained-glass window.]]
Bassel Khartabil has been imprisoned in Syria since 15 March 2012. A passionate advocate of free-knowledge, he worked as the lead of Creative Commons Syria, and a major contributor to Mozilla. He was also an editor of the Arabic Wikipedia.
In December 1996 I published on the web around 150 of my poems under the title 'Rebel ar y We' ('Rebel on the Web'); subsequently changed in 2005 to 'Rhedeg ar Wydr' (''Running on a Glass (roof)''). They were published on the open web, with no charge to access them. Little did I think at the time that it would take 20 years for the cultural sector in Wales to follow suit. Some establishments such as the National Library of Wales and Coleg Cymraeg (Federal University) opened their doors, others, such as the BBC, carefully and gradually unlocked their doors, and others such as Cadw (the counterpart of English Heritage) kept their doors tight shut, with a 'Crown Copyright' notice clamped on every one of their two million images and text.


In the Welsh newspaper ''Y Cymro'' on the 12th February 1997 I said, ''"Many people have asked me to publish an old-fashioned-type-paper-book of poems, but I prefer publishing on the latest technology - sharing my poems freely to every person on this planet.'' The same week, ''Golwg'' mentioned that ''"Robin warned that publishers must move on with the age, or face the fact that the Welsh language will be left to die, on the shelf of an old and dusty library.'' The volume of poems (for what they're worth!) can [http://web.archive.org/web/20120120065857/http://www.cymruwales.com/ still be accessed on the Web Archive].
His latest open-knowledge project has been an effort to [http://www.newpalmyra.org/ preserve the cultural heritage of Syria, in the city of Palmyra]. Currently under threat of groups like ISIS, who have been destroying ancient structures despite reassurances that they would be spared, #NEWPALMYRA hopes to use 3D modelling, and free media to recreate what is being destroyed.


On the one hand we have moved on in the last 20 years: more than a thousand ebooks have been published in Welsh since that first one in December 1996, and the National Library are currently uploading text and 120,000 images under a free and open licence onto Wikimedia Commons. On the other hand, we can NOT upload one image from Cadw onto Commons, unless a sum of £40 per image is paid to them! 'Ownership', selfishly, is still a cornerstone of most people's live - not only establishments such as Cadw - but also to many individual authors who believe that stamping a copyright notice on their work will possibly, one day make them a fortune! Yet, if a Welsh language book sells 2,000 copies - it's a bestseller! The idea of sharing information and literature freely disappeared from the Welsh psyche in the 1980s. But it's coming back, and coming fast.
Following Bassel’s arrest in Damascus in 2012, he was charged by the government of Syria with “harming state security”. Bassel was put on trial without legal representation and was subjected to torture. In October 2015, reports emerged that Bassel disappeared from his prison cell. Rumours suggested that Bassel had been sentenced to death.


In the spring of 2015 BBC Wales released many articles to Wicipedia Cymraeg and their text has been used on cy-wiki. This was a large and brave step, and surprisingly: the world did not end. Today, BBC Wales have used Wikipedia to create a [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/35653484 game in celebration of tomorrow’s St David's Day]. Geolocations on the List of Welsh Saints were used to create fictitious saint names on the BBC website, which includes links to both Welsh and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Welsh_saints English Wikipedia articles]. Another brave step, and the solid, metal door opens another inch.
As volunteers for Wikimedia UK it can be easy to forget that we are afforded certain luxuries. GLAM institutions welcome editors and Wikipedian’s in Residence. We enjoy balanced coverage of our endeavours. And though we may not always be happy with the results, public officials can & will still engage freely with Wikimedia at large.


We look forward to seeing more content being shared openly by the BBC; for at the end of the day, it's all about sharing and widening access to information that we as licence fee payers and taxpayers have paid for. And sharing on the world platform is better than storing content in metal filing cabinets in cold archives of dusty, archaic establishments.
There are also the twin foundations of Creative Commons and open software, both of which Bassel has contributed so much to, and without which none of our work could be possible.


''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/35653484 Try the game for yourself].''
So we are asking you to please join us when we stand at Marble Arch this weekend to ask #WhereisBassel? We will all wear face masks with Bassel’s image on them and demand justice for a wronged free knowledge advocate.


<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2016/02/the-bbc-and-a-game-of-saints/<nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>
For more information see:
*http://jimmywalesfoundation.org/where-is-bassel/
*http://freebassel.org/
*https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/10/08/bassel-missing-syria/
To help with #NEWPALMYRA see:
*http://www.newpalmyra.org/
Best regards,
 
Orit Kopel
 
CEO, Jimmy Wales Foundation
 
[http://jimmywalesfoundation.org/ jimmywalesfoundation.org]
 
<span class="plainlinks">[https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2016/03/whereisbassel-a-global-protest-against-unfair-detention-and-disappearance-of-bassel-khartabil/<nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>


|events=<!--Aim to have between 8 and 10 events listed to avoid this section taking up too much or to little space-->'''March'''
|events=<!--Aim to have between 8 and 10 events listed to avoid this section taking up too much or to little space-->'''March'''

Revision as of 15:17, 16 March 2016

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