Translation is a complex linguistic activity that operates between discourses and cultures – not only language systems – and poses serious problems to any person who must translate. Journalistic translation is a central issue in the media landscape. This issue arose in journalism in the 17th century, became more prominent with the foundation of international news agencies in the 19th century, and permeates media outlets, including those that are monolingual. This chapter illustrates that news agency editors often understand translation as a word-for-word operation. Consequently, they experience translation as a simple yet unpleasant task and may underestimate the risk of distortions. Translations are often delegated to interns, who mainly translate soft news and non-breaking news, or translation work may be given to teams of journalists who work for smaller audiences. News dispatches are often integrally translated in local bureaus according to the editorial agenda of the Global North news agencies operating in the Global South. The role of translation in South–North and South–South news flows has been underexamined and is worthy of more extensive research.