Croatian Wikipedia
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Screenshot Internet encyclopedia project | |
Available in | Croatian |
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Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
URL | hr |
Commercial | No |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | February 16, 2003 |
The Croatian Wikipedia (Croatian: Wikipedija na hrvatskome jeziku) is the Croatian language version of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, started on February 16, 2003.[1] This version has 220,033 articles and a total of 6.9 million edits have been made. It has 311,886 registered users, out of which 488 have been active in the last 30 days, and 13 administrators. Throughout 2014, fewer than two dozen editors made more than 100 edits a month; around 150 made more than 5 edits a month.[2] Around 750 articles are ranked as featured (Croatian: Izabrani članci).[3]
In the period from 2013 to 2021, the Croatian Wikipedia received attention from international media for promoting a
2011 reliability analysis
In a study by Kubelka and Šoštarić from 2011, the reliability of the Croatian Wikipedia was compared to the
In both samples, facts were manually enumerated – 3015 from the Croatian Encyclopedia and 3315 from Croatian Wikipedia. Comparison for factual accuracy showed that for every error in the Croatian Encyclopedia, 2.25 errors were found in Croatian Wikipedia.[13] Analysis by individual categories showed that most errors in Croatian Wikipedia were in the philosophy category, where on average two errors in ten articles were found. The only category where the Croatian Encyclopedia had more errors was natural sciences, where the ratio was 1.25:0.75 in favor of Croatian Wikipedia.[14] Of those factual errors, the ratio was 21:12 for major errors, and 34:23 for minor errors. The overall ratio for minor factual errors was thus lower, the only exception being the society and social sciences category, where the minor error ratio was 3:1.
The reliability analysis for Croatian Wikipedia indicated that 74% of articles were error-free, and 11% had minor errors. Major factual errors were found in 5% of articles, while 4% of articles had both major and minor errors. Overall 85% of articles were deemed "satisfactory" (error-free and containing minor errors), while in comparison 92% of articles in the Croatian Encyclopedia achieved the same rating.[15] Forty percent of articles in Croatian Wikipedia were assessed as sufficiently informative, as opposed to sixty-two percent of articles in the Croatian Encyclopedia. Sixteen percent of Croatian Wikipedia articles were assessed as "insufficiently informative", as opposed to five percent of articles from the Croatian Encyclopedia.[16] The criterion of objectivity measured the neutral point of view in articles; 91% of Croatian Wikipedia articles were assessed as being neutral, as opposed to 98% in the Croatian Encyclopedia. Two percent of Croatian Wikipedia articles were assessed as non-neutral, as opposed to zero in the Croatian Encyclopedia.[16] According to their subjective preference, reviewers chose 53% of articles in the Croatian Encyclopedia as their preferred article version, while only 19.5% of Wikipedia articles were preferred, with 27% of articles being assessed as equal in quality.[17]
Controversy about right-wing bias
Media reports about bias
In September 2013, complaints about
Government reaction
Two days later, Croatia's Minister of Science, Education and Sports,
Jovanović also commented on the Croatian Wikipedia editors – calling them a "minority group that has usurped the right to edit the Croatian-language Wikipedia".[24] Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales said that complaints about the bias of the Croatian Wikipedia were "nothing new", but that Jovanović's denunciation was alarming. Wales also reiterated his opinion that the existence of separate Croatian and Serbian Wikipedias, both written in Serbo-Croatian, is wrong.[25]
Interviews with historians
In 2013, in an interview given to Index.hr, Robert Kurelić, a professor of history at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, commented that "the Croatian Wikipedia is only a tool used by its administrators to promote their own political agendas, giving false and distorted facts".[7] Some examples he listed include the Croatian Wikipedia's coverage of the term Istrijanstvo (Istrianism), defined as a "movement fabricated to reduce the number of Croats", and antifašizam (anti-fascism), which according to him was defined as the opposite of what it really means.[7] Kurelić further advised "that it would be good if a larger number of people got engaged and started writing on Wikipedia", because "administrators want to exploit high-school and university students, the most common users of Wikipedia, to change their opinions and attitudes, which presents a serious issue".[7]
Also in 2013, Snježana Koren, a historian at the
The Croatian Wikipedia page on the Jasenovac concentration camp was regarded as a prime example of its historical negationism and distortions. The Croatian version of the page referred to the WWII Jasenovac concentration camp as a "collection camp" and labour camp, downplayed the crimes committed there as well as the number of victims, and relied on "right-wing media and private blogs" for "a large number" of its references.[27] Hrvoje Klasić, also a historian at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, stated to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in 2018 that "although Jasenovac was in part a labour camp, referring to it as that alone is misleading", arguing that "referring to Jasenovac as simply a collection and labour camp is to use 'the same language' as Ustasa propaganda", and also added that "a number of articles and topics are done in a completely revisionist manner [on the Croatian Wikipedia], with highly emphasised nationalist and, I would dare to say, pro-Ustasa sentiment".[27]
Disinformation assessment by Wikimedia Foundation
In 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation posted a job ad for a disinformation evaluator position, with the aim to further examine disputed content on the Croatian Wikipedia.[28] In March 2021, a number of changes were made to remove administrative access from a group of editors considered responsible for the entire affair,[further explanation needed] some of whom also had their names published in Croatian media.[6] One of these was exposed to be an editor of a known far-right web portal, widely utilised as a 'reliable' source on Croatian Wikipedia.[29]
In June 2021, Wikimedia published its Croatian Wikipedia Disinformation Assessment. It concluded that "A group of Croatian language Wikipedia (Hr.WP) admins held undue de facto control over the project at least from 2011 to 2020.[8] During that time, the group intentionally distorted the content presented in Croatian language Wikipedia articles in a way that matched the narratives of political organisations and groups that can broadly be defined as the Croatian radical right."[8] According to the assessment, the administrators had abused their power to ban dissidents and selectively enforced and broke rules, resulting in project capture.[8]
References
- ^ "Glavna stranica". Wikipedia (in Croatian). Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ "Wikipedia Statistics Croatian". stats.wikimedia.org. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
- ^ "Izabrani članci". Croatian Wikipedia (in Croatian). Wikimedia Foundation. April 20, 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
- ^ a b Dewey, Caitlin (4 August 2014). "Men's rights activists think a "hateful" feminist conspiracy is ruining Wikipedia". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
- ^ "Što nas Wikipedia uči o medijskoj pismenosti: Kako su pali Daily Mail, Breitbart i InfoWars". Faktograf.hr (in Croatian). 18 October 2018.
- ^ a b Jarić Dauenahuer, Nenad (23 March 2021). "Hrvatska Wikipedija konačno prestaje biti ustaško ruglo". Index.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Jovanovićeva poruka učenicima i studentima: Ne koristite hrvatsku Wikipediju!" [Jovanović's message to pupils and students: Don't use Croatian Wikipedia!]. Index.hr (in Croatian). 13 September 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
- ^ a b c d e "Croatian Wikipedia Disinformation Assessment-2021 – Meta". Meta Wikimedia. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
- ^ "Wikimedia bans admin of Wikipedia Croatia for pushing radical right agendas". therecord.media. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ^ Krnić, Lovro. "Početak kraja Endehapedije". Portal Novosti. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
- ^ Kubelka & Šoštarić 2013.
- ^ Kubelka & Šoštarić 2013, p. 124-125.
- ^ Kubelka & Šoštarić 2013, p. 127.
- ^ Kubelka & Šoštarić 2013, p. 128.
- ^ Kubelka & Šoštarić 2013, p. 129.
- ^ a b Kubelka & Šoštarić 2013, p. 130.
- ^ Kubelka & Šoštarić 2013, p. 131.
- ^ Sampson, Tim (October 1, 2013). "How pro-fascist ideologues are rewriting Croatia's history". dailydot.com. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
- ^ "Fascist movement takes over Croatian Wikipedia?". InSerbia News. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
- ^ Trolls hijack Wikipedia to turn articles against gays Archived 2018-07-08 at the Wayback Machine, Gay Star News
- ^ Tko prepravlja LGBT Hrvatsku na Wikipediji?
- ^ "Kako je hrvatsku Wikipediju uzurpirala ustašoidna desnica" [How did pro-Ustasha right-wing editors take Croatian Wikipedia]. Tportal (in Croatian). 11 September 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ^ "Desničari preuzeli uređivanje hrvatske Wikipedije" [Right-wing editors took over the Croatian Wikipedia]. Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 10 September 2013. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ^ a b c "Jovanović: Djeco, ne baratajte hrvatskom Wikipedijom jer su sadržaji falsificirani" [Jovanović: "Children, do not use the Croatian Wikipedia because its contents are forgeries"]. Novi list (in Croatian). 13 September 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
- ^ Penić, Goran (14 September 2013). "Osnivač Wikipedije govori za Nedjeljni: 'Srbi i Hrvati ne smiju imati odvojene Wikipedije'" [Right-wing editors took over the Croatian Wikipedia]. Jutarnji list (in Croatian). Retrieved 8 April 2020.
- ^ HINA. 15 September 2013. Archived from the originalon 2013-12-21. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
- ^ a b Milekic, Sven (March 26, 2018). "How Croatian Wikipedia Made a Concentration Camp Disappear". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
- ^ "Wikipedija u obračunu s dezinformacijama na hrvatskom: Objavili oglas za novo radno mjesto". tportal.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2021-01-31.
- ^ Krnić, Lovro (16 March 2021). "Početak kraja Endehapedije". Novosti (in Croatian). Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- Kubelka, Ozren; Šoštarić, Petra (2013), "Wikipedija nasuprot Hrvatskoj enciklopediji, kvalitativan odnos slobodno i tradicionalno uređenoga enciklopedijskoga sadržaja na hrvatskom jeziku" [Wikipedia opposite the Croatian Encyclopedia, a qualitative relation between a freely and a traditionally edited encyclopedic text in Croatian], Studia lexicographica (PDF) (in Croatian), 9, Zagreb: Miroslav Krleža Lexicographical Institute: 119–133, retrieved July 20, 2018
Further reading
- "Hrvati koji pišu najveću svjetsku enciklopediju". Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 18 February 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-10-21.
- Simić, Tanja (12 December 2005). "Hrvatski junaci Wikipedije" [Croatian heroes of Wikipedia]. Nacional (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
External links
- Official website (in Croatian)