What Role Do PR Firms Have on Wikipedia?

So. . .  the latest PR brouhaha is that a PR firm created, edited and changed pages on Wikipedia. 

I don’t know all the details, but the article at this point has a lot of finger pointing and innuendo. Beyond the article some are even saying that a PR firm should not create or edit Wikipedia pages for a client.

I have to say, “What is wrong with a PR firm creating a page for a client or correcting errors in a page about a client?”

I briefly looked at the editorial policy for Wikipedia, and it states, "Anyone can create or edit a page…" It doesn’t say, “except for PR and marketing firms on behalf of a client.”   So I have to believe that when they say “anyone,” they mean ANYONE.

The fact that anyone can create or edit pages is one of Wikipedia’s greatest strengths and, at the same time, greatest weaknesses.

Unfortunately, there are people out there, not all of them working for PR firms, who deliberately remove anything negative, place overly positive comments and editorialize like crazy, not to mention just plain lie on Wikipedia pages that they have designated themselves as the gatekeeper for all information on the subject.

If one of the main duties of a PR firm is to protect their client’s reputation and provide correct information about them, isn’t it also their responsibility to ensure any information concerning that client is up-to-date and accurate on a website like Wikipedia?  

What do you think?

Ken