Hi everyone, The Wiki Loves Monuments international team has been asked if photographs from Russia should be allowed or excluded from participating in this year's international contest. We have been in contact with the organising teams of Wiki Loves Monuments from Ukraine and from Russia to discuss this and to find a solution.
We greatly appreciate that the team from Ukraine has organized the local edition of the competition while there is war in their country! We understand that there are reservations against seeing images from Ukraine and Russia presented side by side in the galleries of nominated or winning pictures. The volunteer team organising Wiki Loves Monuments Russia emphasizes to have no ties to the Russian government or the Russian Wikimedia affiliate. They are submitting the 10 finalist images to the international final round of Wiki Loves Monuments 2022, but the occupied areas, including Crimea and Sevastopol, have been excluded from the Wiki Loves monuments campaign. Also, in Russia there is no freedom of panorama for works of art. This excludes, in fact, any images of monuments and statues erected since World War II, and which for example glorify the war, from being legally uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If images from Russia are excluded because of the war in Ukraine, this could, without being based on a rule for the competition, set a precedent for other territories where there is war around the world. Rules would have to found, before deciding case by case, if a country should not be allowed to send its nominations to Wiki Loves Monuments international. With these considerations in mind, the WLM organising team does not see a reason to exclude the submission of Russian finalists images to the international final round. On behalf of the WLM 2022 organising team, Rubén Ojeda International jury coordinator, Wiki Loves Monuments 2022
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