-
Wikipedia probes its Persian website’s omission of Iranian officials’ crimes

Wikipedia is launching an investigation on whether the Persian language version of its website has been removing information on its pages that mentioned Iranian officials’ involvement in human rights violations, following reports by a London-based non-governmental human rights organization.
Justice for Iran accused Persian Wikipedia of “covering up for human rights violators in Iran by deleting statements by officials involved in crimes against humanity” in a statement on Thursday.
According to Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of a US-government funded radio channel, the organization called on Wikipedia’s administrators to “take serious measures to ensure that authoritarian states like Iran do not use Wikipedia as a tool to censor, repress, and escape punishment.”
Thursday’s statement came after some Wikipedia contributors accused members of the Persian website’s editorial team of editing pages on the website, whose content is created by its users, to remove any mention of crimes committed by officials from the Iranian regime.
The organization said that an entire subsection titled “Human Rights Violations” was removed from Wikipedia’s page on Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council Secretary and former chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGCs).
Rezaei was named in a list of Interpol’s most wanted persons in 2007 for his alleged role in the 1994 AMIA bombing, a terrorist attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina’s Buenos Aires.
According to Justice for Iran, “What makes this example highly revealing is the publication of a Wikipedia page in 2013 that alleges that Rezaei’s name was removed from Interpol’s list.” The page currently states that the former IRGC chief is no longer a wanted person.
Questions about the Persian editorial team’s objectivity were raised after a September 2018 seminar titled “Professional meeting on the application of Wikipedia tactics in communications” was held at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance of Iran.
According to Radio Farda, the ministry is responsible for censorship in Iran, and the omissions by Persian Wikipedia’s editorial team have shown how influential the Iranian government can be.
“Let’s put it this way, these people are taking on the role of the ministry of guidance in Wikipedia, in the sense that they can close an account, open another, give warnings, and so on. But they are stronger than the ministry,” the radio channel quoted a member of Persian Wikipedia’s editorial team as saying at last year’s seminar.
“They have the keys in their hands. It’s just like when the ministry prevents the publishing of a particular newspaper, so that it’s not published automatically,” the member said, according to Radio Farda.
According to an article titled “Persian Wikipedia: an independent source or a tool of the Iranian state?” that was published on OpenDemocracy, a few seminar attendees questioned the website’s objectivity.
Tags
You May Also Like
Popular Posts
Caricature
BENEFIT Sponsors BuildHer...
- April 23, 2025
BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
BENEFIT’s Chief Executive Mr. Abdulwahed AlJanahi, commented: “Our support for this educational hackathon reflects our long-term strategic vision to nurture the talents of emerging national youth and empower the next generation of accomplished female leaders in technology. By fostering creativity and innovation, we aim to contribute meaningfully to Bahrain’s comprehensive development goals and align with the aspirations outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030—an ambition in which BENEFIT plays a central role.”
Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager, PR & Communication at BENEFIT, said: “We are honoured to collaborate with RUW in supporting this remarkable technology-focused event. It highlights our commitment to social responsibility, and our ongoing efforts to enhance the digital and innovation capabilities of young Bahraini women and foster their ability to harness technological tools in the service of a smarter, more sustainable future.”
For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”
opinion
Report
ads
Newsletter
Subscribe to our mailing list to get the new updates!