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Talk:Maria Gatland

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"Terrorist" in lead

[edit]

I recently removed the word "terrorist" from the opening sentence of this article, only for it to be restored an hour or so later. Rather than start an edit war over the issue, I thought I ought to bring it here.

I know little about this person, disagree with her politics, and in no way dispute the status of the IRA as a terrorist organisation, but I do take issue with including the word "terrorist" in the lead sentence for a few reasons:

  • As far as I know, Ms Gatland hasn't been convicted of terror offences, so there is a danger of libel here, not to mention a reasonably large violation of WP:BLP
  • There is nothing to suggest that her involvement with the IRA continues to the present day, so, at the very least, we should include the word "former"; I would also suggest putting the terrorism part after "councillor"
  • The lead goes on to mention her involvement in the IRA; this adequately conveys the issue without using such inflammatory language
  • On the whole, especially given the current political climate in the UK, the desire to keep the word seems to be driven by an overtly political motive. Wikipedia should, of course, retain a NPOV.

Can we establish some consensus here? dendodge 14:22, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]