Last year, ex-member of parliament Patricia Remak was convicted of benefit fraud, because she claimed wachtgeld for her work as member of parliament when she was already employed as a civil servant at the finance ministry and a member of the provincial states of Noord-Holland. She appealed this ruling, but was convicted again earlier this year. All these facts can be found in the English Wikipedia article about her, but if you look at the same article on The Dutch Wikipedia, no mention is made of this at all.
How did this happen? Simply because Remak complained to Wikipedia that mentioning her conviction was an invasion of her privacy, the details of her conviction falling under the Wet Bescherming Persoonsgegevens (WBP), which meant that only with her permission Wikipedia could’ve mentioned her crimes and conviction. Under the WBP any sort of publication of private data is strictly controlled, and in general can only be used with permission. A criminal record is one example of the sort of data that’s protected under the WBP, so Remakr had a case if she was just an ordinary citizen. However, as an ex-member of parliament, who in large part is only noticable for her conviction, the details of her crime and conviction are fair game, as shown by the simple fact that her case was widely reported on in the Dutch papers, not something that happens with every conviction for benefit fraud. It is a bit cheeky if understandable to then object to publication in Wikipedia, because who wants to be known as a benefit cheat forever?
It is disappointing however to see Wikipedia cave in, as by doing so it has been deliberately falsified. At the moment, everybodyknows Remak was a benefit cheat and was convicted for it, but how many people will remember this in five years time? In ten? In a hundred? How many people will take the Wikipedia article at face value and not realise that Remak was not just your average member of parliament, but one shown unworthy of the trust of the voters by committing fraud? And if it’s this easy to let Wikipedia remove unpleasant facts about yourself, how many other people and companies will start doing so? An encyclopedia cannot be reliable if unpleasant truths are omitted when people object to them.