Translation row – CNN versus Iran
As of 16:33 GMT on 16 January 2006, the BBC is reporting that Iran has accused CNN of incorrectly translating a recent speech by its President. The argument is over a very key word – CNN reported that the President’s speech contained a statement asserting Iran’s right to nuclear weapons, while Iran is stating that the speech used a word that should have been translated as “technology” instead of as “weapons”.
BBC reported that Iran’s culture ministry has issued the following statement:
The Iranian culture ministry issued a statement on Monday saying: “Taking into account CNN’s actions contrary to professional ethics in the past years and their distortion of the president’s comments during his press conference on Saturday… no journalists from CNN will be authorised to come to Iran.”
I am no Farsi speaker and have no access to the original speech even if I could understand it. Unlike traditional media outlets, however, this blog format allows me to ask the readers directly – do you know any more about this than I do?
