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 It is not sufficient that we merely get our facts right. We must use language fairly. That means avoiding exaggeration. We must not use language inadvertently so as to suggest value judgements, commitment or lack of objectivity. Accurate language in the Arab world - by Fouad Razek, Head of News and Current Affairs, Arabic Service We cover the Middle East and, by nature, our audience is politicized. Many listeners are educated people, especially from Sudan where we have our highest rate of listenership. Politicians and policy-makers are part of our general audience; there's a rebel audience as well. In times of crisis, we have a huge amount of people turning to the World Service, to listen to our in-depth analysis. We find ourselves treading very carefully. There are major stories in our region and there's always something to report about. From a journalistic point of view, this is very good because we have hot topics, wars, events - all the ingredients of good broadcasting. Impartial Arabic This also means that every day, we make decisions about language and terminology which is sensitive to our area. We try to use impartial language. The Arabic language has its nuances - we have to be extremely accurate about the content, the terminology and the translation in order to be impartial in our coverage of news. Some words are problematic. People in our audience ask us, why do you say hajamat ittihariah, in other words, suicidal attacks? Why don't you say hajamat istish hadiah, i.e., martyr attacks? Avoiding judgements We believe that if we use istish hadiah we are making a judgement, implying that the person is a martyr and according to Islam will go to paradise. In the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, we stick to suicidal attacks because we see it as the most neutral term – it describes the action itself, which is committing suicide. Sometimes, neither the Arabs nor the Israelis agree with us. We get criticism from all sides. We are very closely monitored. Some people in the Arab and Islamic worlds do not like the use of the word irhab (terrorism), believing that resistance and struggle against an enemy or an occupying force should not be called terrorism. Others, on the other side of the equation, consider any acts of violence especially if civilians are targeted, as acts of terrorism. We distance ourselves from such debate. |
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