Wikipedia Founders Launch Wikinews Site

Wired News reports that the creators of Wikipedia have launched Wikinews, which lets anyone who wants to test their journalistic skills post, edit or correct news and current events items.

Unlike South Korea's very successful Ohmy News, which allows authors to editorialize, Wikinews aims for a more neutral journalistic style.

The community is currently discussing whether stories should pass a review and whether reporters should be accredited. Since its beta launch, 90 articles have been written and edited on topics ranging from Ukraine elections to sports.

Hopefully the site won't be crapped up by PR people posting press releases from hell.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales believes the process of collaborative editing has allowed Wikipedia -- which contains more than 1 million entries in more than 75 languages -- to maintain a neutral tone on a wide variety of controversial topics. He expects the same process to prevent bias in Wikinews coverage.

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