Here at Veritas, we’re always excited to read about languages in the news. A story which we’ve been following recently however, left us with a more sickly feeling in our stomachs. Last month, two British journalists were arrested in Libya and held for a number of weeks by militia forces. Initially the pair were detained on the grounds of having entered the country illegally, but a few days into their capture they were accused of being Isreali spies after some medical supplies with Welsh-language writing was discovered in their possession. Here’s how their ordeal played out:

The two journalists, Nicholas Davies-Jones and Gareth Montgomery-Johnson (from Carmarthen, South Wales) were working for Iran’s state-owned English language Press TV in Tripoli. One night in February, they were arrested at a party by The Swelhi Brigade; a Libyan militant group. When they asked their captors why they were taken, they were told that they did not have Libyan entry visas in their passports, and had therefore entered the country illegally. After 5 days under arrest, things turned darker for the two journalists when they were accused of spying after Welsh-Language documents in their possession were mistaken for Hebrew.

Speaking in an interview with BBC radio 5 live, Mr Montgomery-Johnson explained that his father was a nurse in a Welsh hospital and that the pair “were mistaken for ...