Media News - Monday, May 05, 2008

Chinese newscasters to be fined for erroneous pronunciation

Erroneous pronunciations by TV newscasters will result in a nominal fine at China’s national broadcaster but a slip of the tongue may be forgiven. In an afternoon news show on China Central Television (CCTV) on April 26, Guo Zhijian, a promising young newscaster, chose one, unluckily erroneously, from a few different pronunciations for a same word. He repeated the gaffe three times. Liang Ruini, a CCTV News outreach coordinator, said Guo would be fined for his negligence. The house rules stipulated fines ranging from CNY 50 yuan (EUR 4.64) to CNY 200 (EUR 18.58) for each wrong pronunciation. Another newscaster, Xu Wumei, was caught out by the audience for a slip of the tongue. At the beginning of a news program when newscasters were usually expected to say ‘Good afternoon,’ Xu blurted out a few eerie words that could hardly be deciphered as ‘Good afternoon’. Some decoded that she said ‘Good this day,’ which is more than rarely used by native Chinese speakers. Xu’s slip didn’t deserve monetary punishment because it was not a technical mistake for broadcasting, Liang was quoted as saying by a local news paper. ‘We thank our audience for paying meticulous attention to our news shows and will circulate a warning to our newscasters,’ Liang said. (Xinhua via Media Network Weblog)

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