CNN Corrects Mistranslation of Erdogan

By Published On: October 3, 2011

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria last night aired the following correction, noting that the network mistakenly translated a statement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan in a Sept. 25, 2011 interview concerning the number of Palestinians killed by Israelis:

One note about last week’s interview with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan before we get on with the show. The translation heard on the show had Mr. Erdogan saying that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been killed by Israel. That’s how Mr. Erdogan own official translator translated his boss’ words. We had an outside translator to check the translation, and that’s how she translated it, as well. There was critical reaction to the remarks, including from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who told the “Jerusalem Post” that Israel, quote, “Certainly has not taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians,” unquote. That prompted us to seek a new translation and a re-examination of the tape shows that Mr. Erdogan actually said, quote, “Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed,” unquote. Not, “hundreds of thousands.” We hope this clarifies the matter, and we regret the error.

The Jerusalem Post‘s article about the mistranslation is here.

Here is the Sept. 26 interview:

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