From CNN.com:

Iran’s government banned CNN journalists from working in the country Monday after a translation error broadcast by CNN mistakenly quoted Iran’s president as saying his nation has the right to build nuclear weapons, the state-run news agency said. The dispute arises from a moment of simultaneous translation Saturday.

As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking, an interpreter working for a translation company hired by CNN misquoted him as having said Iran has the right to build nuclear weapons. In fact, he said Iran has the right to nuclear energy, and that “a nation that has civilization does not need nuclear weapons.” He added, “Our nation does not need them.”

Related, the following post entitled “Iranian President acting weirder…scarier” ran on a blog called Independent Sources but elicited so such response:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has wasted no time showing what an extremist he really is whether by denying the Holocaust, moving Israel to Europe or banning Western music. Intermixed with this however he’s also shown that he doesn’t really have a terrific grip on reality. For example, in addressing the U.N. General Assembly in December he said that one of his aides told him that “a light surrounded him when he took the podium.” Ahmadinejad took this as a religious sign and added that “all of a sudden, the atmosphere changed, and for 27 to 28 minutes, the leaders did not blink.”

With no official ban by the Ahmadinejad’s government, Iranian web surfers (all 24 of them) continue to visit Independent Sources as they choose, not to mention leave insightful comments:

????? ?????? ?????? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ????? ???? ??? ?? ????? ??????? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ? ???? ????? ?????? ?????? ???. ?? ??? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ? ????? ???????? ???????? ?? ??? ??????? ??????? ? ?????? ?????? ??????? ? ??????? ????? ???? ??????. ????? ?? ???? ????? ???? ?????????? ????????? ?????? ????? ?? ?????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ??????. ?? ?? ??? ???? ???: ?? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ?? CNN ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ???? ? Independent Sources ??????? ??? ? ?? ?? ????? ????????? ?? ??? ?? ? ??? ?? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ??????? ?? ??? ???Independent Sources ????? ???? ???. ?? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ????? ??? ???

For our non-Farsi speakers, the above comment says,

“Our country grows more repressive every day. First western music is banned and then our women are told to cover up or risk being beaten. We can no longer watch CNN, which is not that big of a deal since they had already taken away almost all of our satellite dishes. Allah be praised for Independent Sources, it remains the one link we have to sanity and to freedom. I hope Americans in the USA know how lucky they are to have Independent Sources and oh yes, congratulations on your one year anniversary!”

Well we don’t speak Farsi but we’re pretty sure it says something complementary and if there is anything to be learned from Jame Frey, it’s the emotion that one’s writing elicits that is important not the factual accuracy.

technorati: iran

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 4:56 pm by Insider and is filed under Loons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.