Detention of Mark Bernstein

's WikiConference on 14 September 2014 Bernstein has edited Wikipedia under the username Pessimist2006. From late 2009 He was commissioned by other encyclopedia publishers to write articles. He described his "best" achievement in Wikipedia in 2009 as his work on an article on censorship in the Soviet Union, in which he had cited about 250 sources. At the time he was also interviewed by Deutsche Welle for his expertise in commenting on the development of the Belarusian-language Wikipedia project, which exists in two grammatical versions, Taraškievica and Narkamaŭka. Bernstein advised new Wikipedia editors to first learn from the editing patterns of experienced editors, and to be prepared for working with editors holding very different and often opposed viewpoints, which he saw as a key to the development of Wikipedia articles. == Arrest and detention ==

When some editors of the Russian Wikipedia claimed that the name "Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022)" violates Wikipedia's policy to present information from a neutral point of view, Bernstein said, "Russian troops invaded the territory of Ukraine. It's just a fact, not a point of view". On 10 March 2022, a Russian propaganda online messaging forum on Telegram, Mrakoborets (, a Harry Potter reference), published private information about Bernstein and accused him of violating a new Russian law against publishing fake news. The forum claimed that Bernstein's editing of Wikipedia articles on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine violated the new law. Pro-government Telegram channels published a video recording of Bernstein's detention and accused him of spreading fake "anti-Russian" information. On 11 March 2022, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, stated in response to an enquiry about Bernstein's detention that the Foundations' "Trust and Safety and Human Rights teams [were] monitoring the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and [were] in close touch with [Wikimedia] communities in the region to ensure their safety and respond to their needs." In a joint statement of seven organizations, including the Viasna Human Rights Centre, dated 29 March 2022, he was recognized as a political prisoner. Limited freedom On 24 June 2022, in a second conviction, Bernstein was given a "parole-like" sentence, with restricted freedom, for three years, for "organizing and preparing activities that disrupt social order". Bernstein stated that he was innocent of the charge. The prosecution's justification for the charge was described as "unclear" by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. ==See also==