Chinese Media Censorship Spike Indicates “Changes” Coming to Great Firewall

中國媒體審查機制，顯示防火長城將「變遷」

本則影音新聞出處：新唐人電視台英語新聞

【新聞關鍵字】

1. Censorship :[s’ɛnsɚʃ,ɪp] n. 審查

2. Spike:[sp’ɑɪk] v. 阻止；制止

3. In place :ph. 在適當的位置上

4. Speculation:[sp,ɛkjəl’eʃən] n. 推測

5. Subject to: ph. 受…的控制

6. Rumor:[r’umɚ] n. 謠言

7. Purge:[p’ɚdʒ] n. 清算

8. Dissent :[dɪs’ɛnt] n. 異議

9. Exile:[‘ɛgz,ɑɪl] v. 驅逐

For roughly an hour on Thursday morning, Mainland Internet users were incapable of visiting any foreign website. This degree of censorship is far beyond the normal monitoring and blocking technologies put in place by Chinese Communist Party authorities… commonly known as the Great Chinese Firewall.

週四上午，大約有一小時的時間，內地網民無法造訪任何國外網站。這種網路監控程度，遠遠超出了中共機關正常的監測和阻斷技術…也就是眾所周知的防火長城。

Though the incident lasted only an hour or so, it has given rise to intense speculation. Combined with other recent trends, it has led some to believe that the entire system of media and Internet censorship might be targeted for radical changes.

雖然這事件只持續一小時左右，但它已引起了許多猜測。與近期的其他發展趨勢結合，使一些人相信，整個媒體和網路審查機制，可能會發生巨大改變。

Though political content has always been subjected to tight monitoring, that has intensified in recent days as rumors and debate have spread online about China’s top news story: the purge of former Party leadership hopeful Bo Xilai.

雖然政治內容一直受到嚴密監控，但關於最近中國最大的新聞故事：「前黨領導們希望清算薄熙來」的傳聞和辯論，已在網上廣為流傳，最近幾天甚至愈演愈烈。

Posts mentioning Bo have been deleted, and Internet searches have been blocked. It’s apparently a bid to prevent serious dissent from forming over the move to exile Bo from Chinese politics.

提及薄熙來的貼文已被刪除，網上的相關搜索也被封鎖。這顯然是為了防止驅逐薄熙來異議運動的形成。

【新聞關鍵字】

10. Crackdown :[kr’ækd,ɑʊn]n. 鎮壓

11. Detention :[dɪt’ɛnʃən]n. 拘留

12. coup d’etat :ph. 政變

13. faction :[f’ækʃən] n. 派系

14. reformer:[rɪf’ɔrmɚ] n. 改革派

15. hardliner:[h’ɑrdl,ɑɪnɚ]n. 強硬派

Chinese authorities also announced Thursday that they had shut down 42 websites and erased over 210,000 web posts since mid-March, all part of a crackdown on “dangerous” rumors.

中國當局也在週四宣布，自3月中旬他們已經關閉42個網站、刪除210,000篇貼文，而這些都屬於打擊「危險謠言」的一部分。

These include one widespread rumor, beginning shortly after Bo’s apparent detention on March 15th, that his allies at high levels were launching a political coup d’etat.

其中包括一個廣為流傳的傳聞，在3月15日薄熙來被拘留後不久開始，傳聞說他在高層的盟友發動了一場政變。

At the same time, however, there have been other signs that the censorship structure might change in the direction of greater freedom.

然而，在同一時間，有其他跡象顯示，網路審查機制可能會朝向更大自由度的方向轉變。

Since March, there have been numerous occasions when it has been suddenly possible to access web content related to highly-censored topics, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, or the Falun Gong spiritual practice and its persecution by Communist Party forces.

自三月以來，已發生許多次突然可能進入被高度審查封鎖的網站，例如1989年天安門抗議事件和大屠殺，或是法輪功精神運動，及其被共產勢力的迫害。

As the Party’s factions now struggle for power in this year’s crucial leadership transition, one of the major questions will be which side, reformers or hardliners, ends up in command of China’s vast system of Internet censorship and control.

隨著今年的關鍵領導層交替，黨的派系權力鬥爭，主要問題之一將會是，改革者或強硬派，最後是哪一方將會控制中國廣大的網路審查和監制制度。

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本專欄由前衛英語李德良老師主編 www.davidlee.url.tw