Statement defending interpreter criticized for translation errors in Moscow issued by association

Days after the Hungarian delegation's trip to Moscow, the Hungarian Association of Translators and Interpreters (MFTE) issued a statement in response to criticism of their member's interpretation. The statement sent to Telex began by saying that their colleague has nearly three decades of experience as a high-level interpreter. She has been interpreting at the government level for a long time and has always performed excellently.

They write that the quality of an interpreter's work is not only influenced by their abilities, but also by several factors beyond their control, including acute health problems arising during the flight, exhaustion, their ears being clogged up due to flying, the lack of an in-ear monitor, or the fact that the person being interpreted for is not speaking audibly, or perhaps the acoustics of the room are not ideal.

They also noted that the protocol and security measures in place during such meetings are very strict – it is unclear what the consequences would have been if their colleague had jumped up to indicate that she could not hear.

“This is what occurred in the situation in question too. We understand that due to the acoustic conditions, the speaker's words were not of a quality that could be interpreted. This is confirmed by the fact that our colleague later performed excellently during the negotiations that followed the press conference.”

The statement also pointed out that some members of the delegation, including Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that they would not hold the interpreter responsible.

"The MFTE presidency stands by our colleague and repeatedly emphasizes that she meets all the professional requirements that can be expected in such situations."

At the end of the statement, they mentioned that they had wanted to publish it earlier, but due to the resignation of the organization's president on Tuesday, their time was taken up with organizational issues.

The Hungarian Prime Minister held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian capital on Friday. Ahead of the negotiations, Orbán and Putin spoke briefly in front of the cameras. Beyond the usual polite greetings, in this part of the talks, there could always be things said that predict the mood of the negotiations. Despite its significance, Orbán was given a rather superficial Hungarian translation of Putin's statement by the interpreter, who mistranslated almost the entire greeting of the Russian President. We detailed exactly what Putin said and how it sounded in Hungarian in this article.