When the Shin Bet busted a terror cell planning a massive Passover bombing, a Finnish news agency played fast and loose with a translation of the Israeli announcement. Scandinavian blogger Kenneth Sikorski of Tundra Tabloid caught the state-run YLE in the act.
Here’s the original Israeli gov’t press release. Tundra Tabloid writes:
How does Finland’s state news agency YLE report it?
“Israel: Palestiinalaismilitantit olivat iskeä Tel Aviviin. Israelin turvallisuusviranomaiset kertovat pidättäneensä 19 palestiinalaistaistelijaa, jotka suunnittelivat suurta autopommi-iskua Tel Aviviin kaksi viikkoa sitten. /
“Israel: Palestinian militants were going to strike in Tel Aviv. Israeli security forces said they have arrested 19 Palestinian fighters, who were planing a huge car bomb strike in Tel Aviv two weeks ago.”
Finland’s YLE –which is supposedly quoting a Shin Bet press release– deletes the offensive word, “terrorist” in favor of a more politically correct version of “fighters”. This is of course was supposed to be a direct quote, which is supposed to contain the very same words used by the person/organization being quoted.
I took the liberty in calling the office of YLE, and spoke with a Marjo Ahonen, who appeared oblivious to what I was referring to.
MA: Oh, you mean (he he) that we were to write that they were terrorists….?
KGS: Eh no, if your intention was to quote an Israeli source, then you’re to quote exactly what they said, which was: “Nineteen Hamas terrorists from Kalkilya were arrested last month in a joint ISA-IDF operation. ” Your journalist substituted the word “terrorists” for “fighters”, but that is not what the Shin Bet press release stated.
MA: Oh (he he) I’ll check with the front desk and see what the situation is….
Well upon checking a little bit later, I found out that Marjo Ahonen sure got the ball rolling and had someone change the report, it now reads “they have arrested 19 Palestinians”. It appears to have been updated at (päivitetty 10.04.2007, klo 15.19). It’s not much of an improvement, with that “slight adjustment” probably being done while holding one’s finger in the mouth.
This is a stark example of how loathe the news media is to use the “T” word, …even in a direct quote. The same news media though, has no problem at all in quoting Palestinians who refer to Israel as an “apartheid state” and are guilty of genocide.
