The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Corrections and clarifications

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 06, 2006

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Corrections and clarifications

In "Cremation of Hitler's body ("Variety", "This Day That Age — From the pages of The Hindu dated May 1, 1956", May 1, 2006), a reader says there are errors in the sentence: "Otto Guensche, Adolf Hitler's Personal Adjutant, said in Friendland (West Germany) on April 29 that he had ordered Hitler's body to be burnt in the park of the Berlin Reich's Chancellery after the dictator had shot himself in 1945." It is not "Friendland" but "Frainland", and not "Reich's" but "Reichs", he says. Dr. Gabriele Landwehr, Director/Institutsleiterin, Max Mueller Bhavan, Goethe-Institut Chennai, clarifies: "Both the reader and The Hindu are wrong. It is `Friedland'. Otto Guensche returned in 1956 from a Sowjet [Soviet] detention camp. Guensche first arrived in Friedland, a transit camp set up by the British in Lower Saxonia. But the reader is right about its being `Reichs'. `Reich's' is the English genitive/possessive form. The spelling of Reichs kanzlei — in English, the Reichs chancellery — should be this way. The German genitive form does not use apostrophe. Both `mistakes' result from computer publishing: the English spelling programme does not recognise the forms `Friedland' and `Reichs' and probably just `corrected' them into the English word `frie n ds' and the correct English form (Reich's) for genitive/possessive case."

"Steve McClaren to take over as England coach", read the heading of the AP report ("Sport", May 5, 2006), while the caption for the accompanying AFP photograph referred to him as the new England manager, a reader points out. In English football, the manager is also coach and the terms are interchangeable.

A reader says: "The printer's devil seems to have crept in twice in `Re-creation and reactions' (Chennai and Tamil Nadu editions, Friday Review, May 5, 2006). (The article was on the film `United 93,' a 9/11 tale, that has just been released in the U.S.) The objective of the terrorists was to crash the plane into the Capitol Building, and not Capital, as printed. While Washington DC is the Capital of the U.S., the Capitol is the building in which the U.S. Congress holds its sessions." He is right. It was an editing error.

Despite the clarification published on March 6, 2006 ("Corrections and Clarifications"), readers continue to question the use of the term "actor" for women. "Actor" is a person of either gender who has acting as a profession. The Hindu has adopted "actor" as its in-house style.

It is the policy of The Hindu to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.

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