OK, allegations of mistranslations and biased reporting aside, don’t you think taking legal action against Amnesty International is a tad excessive?
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Legal Action? Against Amnesty?
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on July 22, 2008 at 1:11 pm, filed under South Korea. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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16 Comments
It is excessive. This will only make the government look bad and give some credibility - deserved or not - to those who accuse the LMB administration of being authoritarian.
Excessive and futile. But these ever more frequent “mistranslations” are approaching libel and need to be stopped. Taking legal action against AI however, doesn’t seem like the answer.
Was this report performed under the supervision of local AI personnel or by AI directly?
Is this a case of a subcontractor taking liberties or the deliberate pursuit of a political agenda by AI?
Still, being sued is not a good step for AI.
I am a big fan of AI, but when you do wrong, you do wrong. Sue the fuckers and perhaps headquarters will look a little more closely at who they have hired. AI is impartial…and those translations were obviously slanted toward an agenda.
#4: “AI is impartial.” If you’re referring to artificial intelligence, then you have a point.
Can we clarify one minor point that is really bothering me? The press release issued by AI (http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/south-korea-use-force-against-beef-protestors-should-be-investigated-tho)
about the protests was a PRESS RELEASE not a report. Lets give AI
little more credit that the report (if/when they write one)
will be a bit more substantial - ie: longer than one page!
Has anyone here reviewed how AI has been shoving it up the nose of the police for years? The reason that the AI got away with it was that AI was the good buddy friend of the KDJ and Roh Moo-hyun administrations. Both hated the National Security Law (NSL) — and the AI hated it too.
The AI has been the constant sponsor of the get-out-of-jail-free card for those convicted under the NSL — including those caught as spies. They have always blamed the police and NSI while not condemning Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun who were too busy emptying the jails of communists/spies and sending back home to the North as gestures of “good faith.”
The Amnesty International — like the National Human Rights Commission - Korea (NHRCK) — stood for chastizing the riot police (and those involved in enforcing the NSL) to make it appear that they were the problem. The painted them like they were a holdover from the Park Chung-hee days. Thus when the Hanchongryeon and the others sharpened the ends of pipes so they could slit the throats of the police in Puan, one could always count on the AI and NHRC to show up to criticize the policemen laid up in the hospital for using excessive violence and calling for the resignation of any police commissioner in office at the time.
When the radicals at Daechuri were using 8-foot bamboo poles that were splintered at the ends so that they were like having Ginsu knives attached to a stick. They used these to make sashimi out of the riot police. However, you could always count on the AI and NHRCK to condemn the police for causing the problems. At Daechuri, AI showed up right on schedule when the government finally got around to arresting the Daechuri protest organizers to interview them in jail. Want to see the reports? Just read the last one. They are all the same.
What has changed? The only difference is that now that Roh Moo-hyun is now out of office. Yes, the guy that wanted to “legitimize” the Hanchongryeon — the same guys that have been slitting the police throats or beating on them with pipes for as long as I have been in Korea. These are the ones that are now pretending to be “volunteer peace marshalls” at the latest anti-US beef protests.
Yes, I have no love for the AI nor the NHRCK. Though I support wholeheartedly the lofty principles both organizations espouse, I do not the support corrupted organizations that distorts the truth simply to justify the horrors of these radicals that are out to destabilize the government to fulfill their own agenda.
Yes, the LMB conservative ilk are out to get the radicals. For the first time after ten years (?) one of the people in hiding went on trial. His wife and he are die-hard North Korean lovers who violated the NSL. This makes them automatically the darlings of the AI. I agree that the NSL is an archaic leftover from the old days, but the Korean people have stated that it is still required even though KDJ, Roh and the AI have been trying for years to get it killed.
Do I think that the AI should be sued for libel — YES, if they did in fact make libelous remarks in the report. Like the MBC PD-Notebook mad-cow reports they are a public entity and use their organizations to promote their ideals. As such they have a responsibility to tell the truth — and if not, they deserve to be hammered.
Sorry — after seeing AI turn the truth around for so many years in Korea, I applaud the police for even considering to sue them.
I think suing them isn’t enough. The riot cops themselves should form an organization and file a complaint with Amnesty International. That maybe the only way for that organization to listen to the other side of the story. The only time the AI wanted to hear the other side was when they wanted to interview the riot cop who was in jail for refusing to do the mandatory service.
It’s unbelievable one sided bias.
I agree with #4 and 5. Amnesty International does a lot of good, but there’s no doubt that it is often one-sided. Having done plenty of translating and editing in my day, I know that ‘mistakes’ like those in this article simply don’t happen. The translator, or someone else in the chain before the published version came out, deliberately changed the text for their own political motive.
If it had been an honest mistake, a reproach would be in order. A deliberate misrepresentation such as this one, by an organization with as much influence and respect as AI, deserves a more severe punishment.
…and how did I get to be from France? That’s news to me.
Write to AI here and express your concerns regarding their impartiality:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/contact
Amnesty International is a freaking JOKE.
So is the Hague Tribunal.
And so are the Nobel morons that gave KDJ the Nobel prize for…. PEACE!? Give me a break!
Those “international” organizations are serving particular political interests and while they do something relatively useful in 10% of the cases, they themselves are used by the greatest terrorists the world has known.
LMB, PLEASE, sue those corrupted hypocrites to DEATH!!! I WISH YOU LUCK!
Were it not for the fact that torture, genocide, racism, illegal detention, police brutality, and other human rights violations were so widely practiced by so many countries around the world, there wouldn’t be a need for AI. They are very critical of China, North Korea, Sudan, and the usual offenders. Sure, they also criticize democratic countries, but I’ve always felt that the United States, Canada or South Korea, for example, should set and follow higher standards than the dictatorships of the world.
R. Elgin, I will contact AI in Seoul to complain about their translation. I support the organization overall, but they should be made aware of their mistakes.
Dimitar, please take a look at their website and then try to justify your rant.
@5
Or is it “avian influenza?” It’ll infect anyone!
“Amnesty International is a freaking JOKE.
So is the Hague Tribunal.”
Karadzic should soon be joining more than two dozen other former Yugoslav war criminals who have been convicted in the Hague. Charles Taylor is also a guest for his work in Liberia. Sudan’s al-Bashir and friends, with any luck, will find there way there soon. Is the Hague Tribunal imperfect? Yes. Slow? Yes. A joke? I think not.
AI = Artificial Intelligence
Not:
Avian Influenza
Amnesty International
Abiotic Inbreeding
Americans for Independence
Arctic Incinerator
Albert’s Igor
etc., etc, ad nauseam
Sorry for being so pedantic but misuse of acronyms (Can you hear me Korea Herald?) is one of the few things that pisses me off. Put it down to studying science for eons!