Translation has often been presented as a privileged means capable of taking up
the challenge democratization of information in the democratic process of African
countries. Yet, it is and remains this double-edge knife which can serve and
do harm to “right” information. Our analysis reveals that information is very unequally
distributed according to the languages which convey it. The general rule
which indicates that in most former African colonies, local languages as well as
their speakers are strongly marginalized, has also been respected by the press.
On the other hand, by analyzing the press in general, this paper lays emphasis
on what is agreed on as “international information”. The majority of this information
is derived from translation even though there is no mention of it in the
media, thus confirming the idea which states that translation is a marginal art,
because invisible. Since no translation is neutral, this article recommends that
press agencies of Burkina to have in their teams, specialists in some international
languages and or translation in order to enable them to ensure a more autonomous
and less tag-along treatment of information known as international which
is often collected on foreign channels, and as a result is often skewed.
