WIKIPEDIA has banned members of the Church of Scientology from contributing to articles in a bid to stamp out biased information.
The site's administrators allegedly decided to impose the ban after finding members of the church were changing articles related to Scientology to promote their interests.
It is the first time Wikipedia has placed a ban on such a large group.
In a long running internal review, the site’s Arbitration Committee voted 10 to nil in favour of banning contributions from all IP addresses known to be owned or run by the church.
One member abstained from the vote.
According to evidence found by Wikipedia, multiple users with known scientology IP addresses had been "openly editing (Scientology-related articles) from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities".
The administrators were concerned the edits were "damaging Wikipedia's reputation for neutrality".
Wikipedia promotes the fact its articles are presented from a neutral point of view, and frowns upon users who edit the site "in order to promote their own interests".
Individual users who caused mischief have been prevented from editing articles in the past, but this is the first time such a large-scale ban has been placed.
The Register reported the ban was the first time administrators had officially placed a block on edits from such a large organisation.
A spokesperson from the Church of Scientology's Sydney office said no Australian members would have been involved in editing the site.
The Church of Scientology's Wikipedia entry is currently locked, preventing any edits.
Contributors to ''Wikipedia'', the self-described free, online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, have voted to block the Church of Scientology from editing the encyclopedia. The arbitration committee voted to block the Church with 10 supporting the ban and 1 against it.

"All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates, broadly interpreted, are to be blocked as if they were open proxies. Individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses," a statement on ''Wikipedia's'' website explained.

The ban comes after an arbitration case that lasted six months, beginning in December 2008. The case was opened after contributors discovered that the Church had been editing Scientology-related articles and removing or adding information to promote the Church's studies.

"Editors have been openly editing articles related to Scientology from Church of Scientology equipment and apparently coordinating their activities," added ''Wikipedia''. The committee says that the edits were damaging ''Wikipedia's'' neutral point of view policy. 

A "host of anti-Scientologist editors" were also banned from working on ''Wikipedia's'' Scientology-related articles. The committee concluded that both sides had "gamed policy" and resorted to "battlefield tactics", with the encyclopedia's articles on living persons among the "worst casualties".

Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw said some of the encyclopedia's articles had been "hateful and erroneous". She added: "We hope all this will result in more accurate and useful articles on Wikipedia." 

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis said church members were only "confronting inaccuracies" on the internet: "The story that's being missed is there were people who were doing non-stop attacks on the church and using ''Wikipedia'' to do it. Those people have been banned." He said there had been no orchestrated campaign by church leaders to have members change ''Wikipedia'' articles: "The church is huge. Scientologists are going to say what they're going to say about their own religion."