Wikinewsie.org, a site providing resources to help Wikinews accredited reporters in carrying out original reporting, conducting interviews, handling Freedom of Information requests, working from embargoed press releases and statements, plus undertaking genuine investigative journalism. Please feel free to take a look around; but, note that our journalists’ workspace is non-public.
Below you can see some of the best work published on Wikinews. These are Wikinews’ Featured Articles, although not in the same sense as more-conventional media use the term. [... continued below ...]
U.K. National Portrait Gallery threatens U.S. citizen with legal action over Wikimedia images
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 The English National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London has threatened on Friday to sue a U.S. citizen, Derrick Coetzee. The legal letter followed claims that he had breached the Gallery's copyright in several thousand photographs of works of art uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, a free online media repository. In a letter from their solicitors sent to Coetzee via electronic ...
National Museum of Scotland reopens after three-year redevelopment
Friday, July 29, 2011 Today sees the reopening of the National Museum of Scotland following a three-year renovation costing £47.4 million (US$ 77.3 million). Edinburgh's Chambers Street was closed to traffic for the morning, with the 10am reopening by eleven-year-old Bryony Hare, who took her first steps in the museum, and won a competition organised by the local Evening News paper to be ...
Thirteen dead, several wounded in Fort Hood, Texas shooting
Thursday, November 5, 2009 The United States Army has confirmed that thirteen people have been killed after a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood army base in Texas. An additional thirty are reported wounded, and the gunman is in stable condition after being shot by military police. Two other soldiers are in detention. The incident took place at a deployment readiness center. According to ...
China offers Africa financial aid including $10 billion in loans
Sunday, November 8, 2009 China has offered Africa concessional loans worth US$10 (€6.5) billion as part of a host of new measures aimed at improving the economy of African nations. The announcement was made at the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Leaders of nearly 50 African countries are attending the two-day conference. China had already stated today ...
Chilean earthquakes: in pictures
Thursday, March 18, 2010 On the Feb. 27, Chile was hit by an magnitude 8.8 earthquake; almost 500 were killed, with resulting tsunami destroying most coastal towns between Llolleo and Araucanía Region. A second earthquake last week, with its epicentre in Pichilemu, caused destruction in the Coquimbo and Bío Bío regions. A Wikinews contributor is in the area, and we look at the extent ...
Friday the 13 Buffalo, New York snow storm in pictures
Sunday, October 15, 2006 Buffalo, New York — According to National Grid and NYSEG during an afternoon press conference, at least 300,000 people and businesses are still without power as the City of Buffalo, New York begins to clean up after the worst October lake effect snow storm in "137 years of records" being kept, according to the National Weather Service. The NOAA ...
Swine flu outbreaks appear globally; WHO raises pandemic alert level to 5
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 New cases of the swine flu virus have been reported around the world in recent days, prompting fear of a global influenza pandemic. As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the pandemic alert level to 5. The United Nations has warned that the disease can not be contained. At least 91 confirmed cases of the flu have ...
Creator of website satirizing Glenn Beck on winning domain name case
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Wikinews interviewed the creator of a parody website satirizing American political commentator Glenn Beck, about his thoughts after prevailing in a domain name dispute brought by Beck before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Florida resident Isaac Eiland-Hall created the website in September, and it asserts Beck uses questionable tactics "to spread lies and misinformation". Eiland-Hall ...
Teräsbetoni frontman J. Ahola on representing Finland at Eurovision 2008 & more
Sunday, April 13, 2008 Teräsbetoni means "steel-reinforced concrete", and is also the name of a Finnish heavy metal band formed in 2002. Their music, which centres on an honourable warrior lifestyle or on metal itself, quickly became popular in 2003 on the Internet, resulting in a petition by fans being sent to several record labels demanding a recording deal. In late 2004 the ...
Special report on Japanese tsunami emergency in Pichilemu, Chile
Saturday, March 12, 2011 On Friday, a strong earthquake in Japan triggered a massive tsunami throughout the Pacific Ocean. Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declared a "preventive tsunami warning" that morning. "I want to express my, and Chilean people's solidarity with the Japanese government and people, who were hit by one of the worse earthquakes and tsunamis in the history of mankind," Piñera said. ...
Haiti relief efforts: in depth
Friday, January 15, 2010 Countries and relief organisations around the world are sending aid to Haiti, which was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday, affecting up to three million people, most of them in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Relief efforts, however, have been hampered by damaged or destroyed infrastructure, lack of shelter, and communications difficulties. As of today, at least 300,000 people were ...
A portrait of Scotland: Gallery reopens after £17.6 million renovation
Thursday, December 1, 2011 Today saw Edinburgh's Scottish National Portrait Gallery reopen following a two-and-a-half-year, £17.6m (US$27.4m) refurbishment. Conversion of office and storage areas sees 60% more space available for displays, and the world's first purpose-built portrait space is redefining what a portrait gallery should contain; amongst the displays are photographs of the Scottish landscape—portraits of the country itself. First opened in 1889, Sir ...
Satanism: An interview with Church of Satan High Priest Peter Gilmore
Monday, November 5, 2007 In the 1980's and the 1990's there were multiple allegations of sexual abuse of children or non-consenting adults in the context of Satanic rituals that has come to be known as The Satanic Panic. In the United States, the Kern County child abuse cases, McMartin preschool trial and the West Memphis 3 cases garnered worldwide media coverage. One case ...
AFL provides insufficient support for European leagues: Germany
Thursday, October 29, 2009 The Australian Football League (AFL) has recently come under fire for not supporting European Australian rules football organisations. Local teams have affiliated with AFL teams who help provide them with balls, guernseys and other equipment. "Since 1995 we have been asking the AFL for support on a regular basis, mostly concerning material. Apart from a few footballs, there was basically ...
Military plane crashes in Chilean Juan Fernández Archipelago; reports say no survivors
Sunday, September 4, 2011 Four people, including Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) journalist Roberto Bruce Pruzzo, are confirmed dead after a Chilean military plane crashed near the Robinson Crusoe Island of the Juan Fernández Archipelago on Friday. Twenty-one people were aboard, with such figures as prominent Chilean television presenter and co-host of breakfast programme Buenos Días a Todos (Good Morning Everyone) Felipe Camiroaga ...
Tony Blair tells Iraq Inquiry he would invade again
Friday, January 29, 2010 Tony Blair, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, appeared before the Iraq Inquiry today. He faced six hours of questioning, starting at 6:30 am, at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London concerning his role in the 2003 Iraq invasion. During the inquiry, Blair stood by his decision to invade, saying he would make the same decision ...
[...] For an article to gain the coveted little star on Wikinews, it must qualify as outstanding content; not just be a lengthy piece given prominence and called a “feature”. Thus, Wikinews defers considering an article’s eligibility until it is at least a week since publication and no further changes expected. If interested, you can see the current candidate articles here.
A significant number of these articles are contributions by Wikinews’ accredited reporters, and the facilities provided here on wikinewsie.org continue permitting creation of original reportage.
About Wikinews
Set up in 2004, Wikinews is a project from the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) — the 501(c)3 non-profit/charity behind the fifth most-popular site on the Internet, Wikipedia.
As Wikipedia‘s news-based sister project, Wikinews is less well-known. However, volunteer journalists working on the site have interviewed a sitting head of state, one future prime-minister, the voice artist behind Ren and Stimpy; and, produced news articles about events in every country of the world.
Why wikinewsie.org?
Even in its earliest days, Wikinews operated a community accreditation programme; but, to avoid any liability risks the WMF declined use of @wikinews.org email addresses by contributors. So, with many attempts to obtain comment or interviews failing because of Hotmail or Gmail addresses being ignored, Brian McNeil set up wikinewsie.org in 2007.
Alongside a closed wiki for use in managing longer-term investigative work, adopting @wikinewsie.org email addresses continues to result in more responses to our inquiries as freelance journalists.
