SAN FRANCISCO: Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia to which anyone can contribute, is tightening submission rules after a prominent journalist complained that an article falsely implicated him in the Kennedy assassinations. It will now require users to register before they can create articles, Jimmy Wales, founder of the Florida-based website, said. People who modify existing articles can to do so without registering.

John Seigenthaler, a one-time administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy, complained in an op-ed piece in USA Today last week that a biography of him on Wikipedia claimed he had been suspected in the assassinations of Robert Kennedy, a former Attorney-General, and his brother, President John F. Kennedy.

Wikipedia, often cited as an example of the type of collective knowledge-pooling that the Internet enables, has some 850,000 articles in English as well as entries in at least eight other languages, including Italian, French, German and Portuguese. Since its launch in 2001, it has grown into a storehouse of information on topics ranging from medieval art to nanotechnology. The site relies on volunteers, including many experts in their fields, who submit entries and edit previously submitted articles.

Mr. Wales said he hopes the registration requirement will limit the number of articles being created. While it would not prevent people from posting false information, the new process will make it easier, he said, for the site's 600 active volunteers to review and remove factual errors, defamatory statements and other material that runs afoul of Wikipedia policy.

Wikipedia visitors will still be able to edit content already posted without registering. It takes 15 to 20 seconds to create an account on the website, and an e-mail address is not required.

The episode demonstrates the lack of accountability that often comes with articles posted by anonymous people over the Net.

AP

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