Wednesday, January 18, 2006 CNN Fiasco in Iran Brings Translation into Focus "Iran bans CNN over translation error," ran the headlines on January 16, 2006. A translation company hired by CNN (http://cnn.com) misquoted Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as having said that Iran has the right to build nuclear weapons. When in fact, Ahmadinejad said that "Iran has the right to nuclear energy." Indeed, Ahmadinejad was decidedly anti-nukes in his remarks to CNN's Christiane Amanpour. But with harsh anti-Iran sentiment running strong in the western world, the mistranslation fell into the hands of Iran-bashers like a ripe fruit. A major diplomatic snafu was avoided only after CNN acknowledged that Ahmadinejad was misquoted. What followed CNN's acknowledgment of the mistake can only remind us of the clichéd tactic: "it didn't happen on my shift, Captain." CNN named the translation company (Lesley Howard Languages) as the culprit. Owner Lesley Howard immediately (and publicly) fired the poor translator. And an Iran-based blog reported that the poor translator blamed his wife who served him a spoiled dinner the night before . . . . This story not only brings into focus the importance of quality translation services, it also raises some other important issues. Should a broadcast network like CNN totally rely on the services of an external translation company when broadcasting such a politically and diplomatically sensitive interview? Shouldn't CNN have in-house interpreters or language-specific reporters for the more diplomatically intensive languages (and since 9/11, Arabic and Farsi are probably the top two such languages). Why doesn't CNN train its anchor Hala Gorani for these interviews, who is already fluent in Arabic and could probably learn Farsi quickly. What kind of quality procedure was used to vet the broadcast before taking it live. Did Christiane Amanpour or another CNN senior editor read the transcript to look for potential landmines in the text (certainly a statement by the President of Iran that "Iran has the right to develop nuclear bombs" is a breaking news item, and as any junior reporter has learned, you need to check your sources)? What is the legal liability of the translation company. Can CNN sue Leslie Howard Languages for damages? Is a translation company liable for mistakes in translation? It is the opinion of this blog that it is not. Let the buyer beware and check the translation, especially if the potential ramifications are deadly. To what extent can CNN vilify the translation company? The future of Leslie Howard Languages is somewhat murky, to put it lightly, after CNN dragged them through the mud publicly. In is the opinion of this blog that the mistake is ultimately to be blamed on CNN itself, for not being more painstaking in its journalistic endeavors, and for not having used more stringent quality measures. As a result of this sloppy behavior, the professional lives of several people have been ruined. And that is a shame. 3:31:28 PM    comment [] MSDS Translation in Canadian French per ISO 11014-1 Standard Global Translations can provide customers with translation of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) in Canadian French, for chemical companies that operate in Canada. Global Translations not only provides you with high quality translation, we provide you with MSDSs that are in full compliance with Canadian regulatory standards. The ISO 11014-1 standard for preparation of MSDS is accepted by the Canadian regulatory authorities, provided that it includes all the information required by the WHMIS Controlled Products Regulation (CPR) regulation. You can read more about the acceptable regulatory standards in Canada by going to Canadian government website: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/legisl/msds_prep.html#_1_5. Global Translations specializes in translation in the areas of toxicology and chemical safety, and delivers quality translation in over 50 languages. Recent projects were done in the following languages: Japanese, Malay, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia. 9:40:45 AM    comment [] © Copyright 2007 Global Translations.

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