The Standard has set the trend in publishing excellent articles which radio stations would later translate into local languages for their audience.
This has been the case since private radio stations began translating news. However, the public has brought to the attention of this paper on numerous occasions that what is published on The Standard is sometimes different from what is translated.
The hard part is the newscaster would attribute the story to The Standard or any other paper that published the stories.
Factuality and accuracy are cardinal principles in journalism and we believe it is these principles every news outlet should operate on.
If you are translating stories to your local audience, it is imperative that you translate the exact words or close but not the opposite. For if you don’t, you would taint the reputation of the newspaper whose stories you translate.
Recently, The Standard received complaints from our readers that either they have been misquoted or what they have said is exaggerated on the radios.
Therefore, we call on the local newscasters and their managers to exercise professionalism. If these things continue, we will be forced to tell you to stop translating our stories into local languages.
We all know what the media had gone through in the last twenty-two years and in order to move on we need to work together.
Translate correctly and don’t exaggerate!
