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Centro de Acción Participación y Difusión Caso Microsoft Encarta The Chronicle of Higher Education reveló una campaña del gobierno turco para presionar a la Enciclopedia Encarta de Microsoft con respecto al Genocidio Armenio.
En su 18va edicion de
Agosto, The Chronicle reportó que el gobierno turco amenazó
a Microsoft con serias represalias a
menos que la mención sobre el Genocidio Armenio sea eliminada de
las entradas con respecto a Armenia, escrita por Ronald Grigor Suny, y
con respecto a Genocidio, escrita por Helen Fein.
(Para el que quiera, al final de documento está el articulo mencionado.)
Para apoyar la admirable decisión de ambos
autores seria bueno tomar las siguientes dos medidas:
Medida 1: Agradecer a
"Chronicle of Higher Education" por
enfrentar la censura publicando este importante caso. The Chronicle of Higher Education Attention: Scott Jaschik, Editor 1255 Twenty-Third Street, NW Washington, DC 20037 Tel: (202) 466-1000 Fax: (202) 452-1033 Email: mail@chronicle.com
Points: I am writing to thank you for taking a
powerful stand against censorship by revealing the Turkish government's campaign to pressure Microsoft Encarta to deny the Armenian Genocide. Your August 18th article "The Other Side of Genocide" provided a valuable public service by drawing the attention of academics and the general public to Turkey's shameful efforts to cover-up this crime against all humanity. Medida 2: Alentar a Microsoft Encarta a incluir el Genocidio Armenio en su entrada sobre Turquia. 1) Go to www.encarta.com 2) Click on "Help" at the bottom of the screen 3) Click on "Contact Us" on the left side of the screen 4) Click on "Encarta Content Queries" 5) In the "Offer Product Suggestions" section, click on "Support Form" 6) Complete and submit the form Points: I was troubled to learn in the August 18, 2000 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education that the Turkish government has pressured Microsoft Encarta to censor its documentation of the Armenian Genocide. I encourage Encarta to resist these threats aimed at denying this crime against all humanity. I also would like to recommend that Encarta include the Armenian Genocide in its entry on Turkey. Clearly, no account of Turkish history can be complete without addressing the Armenian Genocide and the systematic destruction of the Greeks and other Christians communities in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. ================================================================= Text of The Chronicle of Higher Education Article ================================================================= The Chronicle of Higher Education August 18, 2000 (page 20) The Other Side of Genocide: Covering up genocide is a tricky business. Probably the best place to start is with the word itself. Coined in 1944 to describe Nazi Germany's systematic murder of millions, it's since been disputed in nearly every other usage, from the U.S. government's early waffling on whether Rwanda's Hutu annihilation of the Tutsis qualified, to the Turkish government's continuing campaign to convince the world that several hundred thousand starved Armenians does not a genocide make. That's where Microsoft's Encarta comes in. Helen Fein, executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, says the online encyclopedia almost helped deny the genocide. In 1996, Encarta asked Ms. Fein to write an entry on genocide. Her short essay, which included a brief mention of the murder or deportation of at least 1.1 million Armenians by the Turkish Ottoman government during World War I, was accepted and published. But this past June, Encarta called Ms. Fein and asked her to revise her entry, in response to "customer complaints." She learned that Ronald Grigor Suny, a political scientist at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, had been asked to revise his entry on Armenia as well. Ms. Fein says Encarta wanted her to include a few lines on the "other side of the story" - the Turkish government's side, that is. Mr. Suny says an Encarta editor named Frank Manning explained to him that the revision would leave the facts in place, but remove the word "genocide." "Their proposed changes suggested that all narratives are equal, that we can't know for sure whether or not the Armenians brought the massacres on themselves," says Ms. Fein. According to Mr. Suny, Mr. Manning told him that the Turkish government had threatened to arrest local Microsoft officials and ban Microsoft products unless the who, what, and why of the massacres were presented as topics open to debate. Microsoft representatives would neither confirm nor deny the threats, but Namik Tan, a spokesman for the Turkish Embassy called the charge "so ridiculous I cannot speak." He acknowledged that the embassy wrote at least two letters to Microsoft urging it to remove the term "genocide" from the two entries, and to cite Armenian rebellion as the cause of any suffering, but he insists that the Turkish government "does not make threats." When Ms. Fein and Mr. Suny threatened to remove their names from the article and to publicize Microsoft's censorship, however, Encarta editors backed down. Ms. Fein and Mr. Suny agreed to add that the Turkish government denies the genocide, but held firm to the facts of its occurrence. When the Chronicle attempted to reach Encarta's editors, a publicist from the company said they were all on vacation. A second publicist added that every story has two sides, even one about genocide. Indeed, Ms. Fein notes that the Encarta entry on Turkey, which is unsigned, still does not mention the Armenian genocide at all. |
