As an observer of language, I came across a very instructive case study recently of how a revealing, off-the-cuff press statement of a presidential candidate, Sen. Benigno Aquino III, was fudged in translation and in paraphrase by certain media outlets that reported it. The concern of Jose Carillo's English Forum being primarily the use and misuse of language, however, I would neither dwell on the political implications of that statement nor make any psychological inferences from it. My critique will simply focus on the blatant unfaithfulness of the translation from Tagalog to English by two media outlets, and on how another media outlet presented as direct quotes a heavily paraphrased and fudged English translation of Sen. Aquino's actual statement in Tagalog.
My critique of this unileral fudging of Sen. Aquino's press statement leads off my special watch of media's coverage of the national election campaign. I'm doing this instead of my usual media grammar watch from now until the voting on May 10. It will focus on the language used by the election protagonists and by the media outlets themselves in their poll campaign reportage. I believe that this special watch is called for at this time when most Filipinos are now in such a frenzy over the coming elections.
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