BBC excludes any distortions in translating Kadyrov's speech

The press secretary of Ramzan Kadyrov has accused the BBC employees of incorrectly translating the statement by the head of Chechnya, who demanded harsh punishment of critics on the Internet. Kadyrov's words were translated correctly, the press service of the BBC has assured.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 4, at a sitting of the Chechen government, Ramzan Kadyrov demanded to reveal authors of negative materials about the republic and the social network users who comment on them. In his speech, Kadyrov attacked those who "violate the people's accord, spread gossips and discords." He suggested stopping such people "by killing, imprisoning and intimidating," on November 7, the website of the Russian BBC Service quoted Kadyrov's words.

After the publication of the BBC's translation, Alvi Karimov, the press secretary of the head of Chechnya, said that the BBC's employee who made the translation does not know the Chechen language well and, therefore, misinterpreted Kadyrov's words, the "Ekho Moskvy" reported on November 7.

Karimov also reproached Western mass media for bias in covering events in Chechnya.

In its turn, the BBC has stated that it was confident of its translation from the Chechen language. "Accuracy is an integral part of the BBC's journalism," on November 8, the "Interfax" quoted the message of the press service of the BBC.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 9, 2019 at 02:22 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.