This article explores news translation and the semantic instability of politically charged words and their translations. Such pairs are linked in a paradoxical relationship of dependence (one is a translation of the other) and independence (they have evolved and continue to evolve within different conceptual horizons). This paper describes a methodology for addressing this phenomenon by considering such pairs as examples of ‘essentially contested concepts’ (Gallie 1956). This methodology derives from a circuit model of culture, and it provides translation studies scholars with tools to describe the dynamic, historically conditioned relationships linking politically charged words, their translations, and their contested, frequently contradictory meanings.