Antara News Agency’s Spelling
Sep 1st, 2006, in Internet, by PatungThe national news agency makes a fool of itself, and the country.
The number of spelling mistakes in Antara’s English service articles is phenomenal, and embarrassing, especially since most of them appear in the headline, and given that the agency is the official state news body. These are all from today’s, 1st September, front page of Antara.
- Sept. 1 – Money more imprtant than looks in man, saya women
- Aug. 31 – US and Iranian flags to go into space with famale tourist
- Sept. 1 – President: avoid repetation of mismanagement in peat-land reclamation
- Aug. 31 – India wants peacekeeper role, not pecae enforcer’s in Lebanon
- Sept. 1 – Indonesia govt provides tax clearance facility for listed coys
- Sept. 1 – Truba Alam ties up with Shanghai Ekectric to build power plants
September 7th
The mistakes above have now been fixed, except that the mis-spelling of “repetition” in “President: avoid repetation of….” example has now become “President: avoid repeatation of….”.
10 Comments on “Antara News Agency’s Spelling”
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Fanglong says:
Those are mainly “typing mistakes” (“coquilles” in French) : no big matter !
BUT, of course, greater care should be taken while proof-reading (also my work for a couple of publishers).
The best to you ! -
Bradlymail says:
that were grammar and spelling mistakes….no big deals !
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bayi says:
of course, it’s a big deal. more so, when you are a national paper!
although some of these are “typo” errors, I think others may be spelling errors. they look suspiciously so.
get proof reading done thoroughly and the problem will be solved.
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bayi@what you meant ? I can’t get it !
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newspapers are all about communication. communication via newspapers is best done when your language is is used effectively as a tool of expression. grammar and spelling errors reflect a lack of fluency in mastering this tool.
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bayi thanks for your explanation and I agree with you.
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Avi says:
Hey Bayi,
your “language is is” interesting but I think you misunderstand the purpose of a
newspaper. A newspaper is used to inform people of certain facts and opinions. Now, while I too feel that it is important to have proper grammar, punctuation etc, I think the errors you have pointed out are minor and have little impact in affecting the facts that were to be conveyed.antara, I think, would be better off focussing on limiting, ideally eliminating, their biases (towards Indonesia and otherwise) and getting more serious about the practive (sic) of journalism.
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Tomaculum says:
Read Antara or Kompas or any othjer Indonesian newspapers in Indonesian. My departed Indonesian teacher in the high school would turn over in his grave. Not to mention a foreign language.
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Avi,
Thanks for pointing that out. No excuses, of course! 🙂 Guilty as pointed out!
Fortunately I don’t work for the papers!
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Avi
Do you advocate “communication English” or in general, language for the purpose of communicating ideas? Minor breaches in grammar are not critical as long as the ideas are effectively communicated.
Comment on “Antara News Agency’s Spelling”.
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I think it’s a minor mistake though… not a big deal… they need a better and pro to do such typing.