This paper analyzes four visions of the role of the fixer – the amateur or professional interpreter working alongside foreign journalists, mostly in conflict zones. Robert Fisk, Fred A. Reed, Hugh Pope and Graeme Smith have covered the Middle East, Central Asia or Turkey during periods of social unrest, military operations and wars, relying to various extents on the ability of local fixers to convey information in their books. The ways in which these journalists describe the role, function, and even appearance of their fixers differ widely: some insist on the presence of a fixer, described as a collaborator or almost as a mother figure, others barely mention the need for language mediation, even in situations where they obviously do not master the language. Confronting these descriptions of mediation between languages sheds light on how the importance of interpretation in conflict zones is perceived, on the fiction of communication without language borders and, more broadly, on the recognition of the role of fixers within the realm of journalism.