Jeddah (UNA) – Editor-in-Chief of the Arabic Department of the Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC) Dr. Sheikhali Aliyev stressed that news agencies in non-Arabic speaking countries face multiple challenges when editing Arabic content, including the need to understand culture and context when editing news.
This came during his participation in the “Symposium on Enhancing Arabic Content in Non-Arabic-Speaking OIC News Agencies,” which was held virtually on Monday (September 2, 2024) jointly organized by the Federation of OIC News Agencies and the King Salman International Academy for the Arabic Language, with broad participation from member news agencies, international organizations, and a number of diplomats and media professionals.
Aliyev explained that translated texts sometimes need to be modified to fit the cultural and social context of the Arab audience. Literal translation may not be culturally understandable or acceptable.
He pointed out the importance of knowing the rules of translation and language, as translation from Arabic into other languages may lead to the loss of some precise meanings or details.
He also stressed the need to access reliable sources, compare the news with the original information, and verify the information, especially when taken from Arabic-speaking sources in non-Arab countries.
It is noteworthy that the symposium witnessed the holding of two specialized discussion sessions, the first of which was entitled: “Challenges of Arabic content in news agencies of non-Arabic-speaking OIC countries,” and the second was entitled: “The vision of the King Salman Global Academy for the Arabic Language to enhance the content of non-Arabic-speaking news agencies.”
The two sessions reviewed the mechanisms and programmes contributing to linguistic development, discussing the challenges facing the relevant news agencies, and the best ways and solutions to overcome them; to come up with a systematic vision that contributes practically to designing institutional linguistic qualification programmes and plans, and facing the challenges related to the use of the Arabic language for news and media purposes.
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