As hostilities rise in Egypt, Marya Hannun sees a parallel fight playing out on Wikipedia:
“To describe the events which allowed Morsi’s rise to power as a ‘revolution’ but those which led to his downfall as a ‘coup’ is clearly biased and violates NPOV [neutral point of view],” one user writes. “A number of the comments by those defending the use of ‘coup’ in the title and trying to shut down discussion frankly strike me as Wiki-lawyering.”
Others have argued that it’s biased not to call the overthrow of Morsy a coup: The “military removing the president and installing a new one (even if not military), suspending the constitution and seizing control over various state apparatus, e.g. state TV fits the normal definition of a coup, particularly since there doesn’t seem to be anything in the constitution or other legal basis for these actions (to be clear I’m only referring to the legal aspect not the ethical or moral or whatever),” one Wikipedian points out. “It is called by the reliable media a coup d’état,deposing a president especially elected is a coup d’état ,and wikipedia only goes with neutral naming,” another notes. …
For what it’s worth, the debate isn’t limited to English-speaking Wikipedia users. The corresponding Arabic page on Egypt’s political upheaval is entitled, “The coup of July 3, 2013 in Egypt.” And the first heading under the corresponding discussion frantically reads, “Revolution or Coup?!”
The Dish 