Relata refero

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Relata refero is a Latin phrase and means “I report what I have reported”, which means something like “I (only) give back what I have heard” or “I know (only) from hearsay” (without vouching for the truth). The past tense relata retuli (also relata rettuli ) is used.

The phrase is used to make it clear that you cannot judge the content of the reproduced facts, because you only know them from hearsay . It goes back to the Greek historian Herodotus ( Historien 7,152 et al.), Who, when reproducing information, for the truth of which he could not personally vouch or whose exact source he believed he had to conceal, noted that he was only reproducing things that he had heard from others. In ancient Greek the expression is λέγειν τὰ λεγόμενα ( legein ta legomena ). The origin of the Latin version cannot be proven.

Both in the Greek original and in the Latin form and in the literal German translation, the expression is a twin formula , which is characterized by the repeating stylistic figure of the polyptoton .

Relata refero was also the motto of the Frankfurter Postzeitung , one of the first newspapers in Europe, which was founded around 1615 in Frankfurt am Main . The choice of this motto reflects the fact that in the early days of the press the editors saw themselves as mere distributors of curious news and unsecured news and refused to accept any liability for the correctness of their reports as well as specifying sources of information. In this context, the protection of informants , which is still common in journalism today, has developed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Relata refero . In: Herders Conversations-Lexikon . Volume 4, Freiburg im Breisgau 1856, p.  699 .
    Relata refero , Latin, I tell what I heard .
  2. ^ Ingrid Maier: Press reports at the Tsar's court in the 17th century. A contribution to the history of the printed newspaper in Russia. In: Holger Böning , Arnulf Kutsch, Rudolf Stöber (eds.): Yearbook for Communication History 6 (2004), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 103–129, here: p. 120:
    Relata rettuli : I have reported (already) reported.
  3. ↑ Referture in DicoLatin , retrieved in July 2020 (French).
  4. ↑ a b Ulrike Haß-Zumkehr : "How credible news have assured you". Formulation traditions in newspaper news from the 17th to the 20th century ( Studies on the German Language , Volume 13). Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-8233-5143-5 , pp. 20-22 with note 13.
  5. ↑ Michael Steinbrecher , Günther Rager (Ed.): Opinion - Power - Manipulation. Journalism put to the test. Westend Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-86489-665-1 , p. XX ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  6. ↑ Ulrike Haß-Zumkehr: "How credible news have assured you". Formulation traditions in newspaper news from the 17th to 20th centuries. Tübingen 1998, pp. 37, 44.