Chinese Media Censorship Spike Indicates “Changes” Coming to Great Firewall
中国媒体审查机制，显示防火长城将“变迁”

本则影音新闻出处：新唐人电视台英语新闻

【新闻关键字】
1. Censorship :[s’ɛnsɚʃ,ɪp] n. 审查
2. Spike:[sp’ɑɪk] v. 阻止；制止
3. In place :ph. 在适当的位置上
4. Speculation:[sp,ɛkjəl’eʃən] n. 推测
5. Subject to: ph. 受…的控制
6. Rumor:[r’umɚ] n. 谣言
7. Purge:[p’ɚdʒ] n. 清算
8. Dissent :[dɪs’ɛnt] n. 异议
9. Exile:[‘ɛgz,ɑɪl] v. 驱逐

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.
周四上午，大约有一小时的时间，内地网民无法造访任何国外网站。这种网路监控程度，远远超出了中共机关正常的监测和阻断技术…也就是众所周知的防火长城。

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.
虽然这事件只持续一小时左右，但它已引起了许多猜测。与近期的其他发展趋势结合，使一些人相信，整个媒体和网路审查机制，可能会发生巨大改变。

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.
虽然政治内容一直受到严密监控，但关于最近中国最大的新闻故事：“前党领导们希望清算薄熙来”的传闻和辩论，已在网上广为流传，最近几天甚至愈演愈烈。

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.
提及薄熙来的贴文已被删除，网上的相关搜索也被封锁。这显然是为了防止驱逐薄熙来异议运动的形成。

【新闻关键字】
10. Crackdown :[kr’ækd,ɑʊn]n. 镇压
11. Detention :[dɪt’ɛnʃən]n. 拘留
12. coup d’etat :ph. 政变
13. faction :[f’ækʃən] n. 派系
14. reformer:[rɪf’ɔrmɚ] n. 改革派
15. hardliner:[h’ɑrdl,ɑɪnɚ]n. 强硬派

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.
中国当局也在周四宣布，自3月中旬他们已经关闭42个网站、删除210,000篇贴文，而这些都属于打击“危险谣言”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.
其中包括一个广为流传的传闻，在3月15日薄熙来被拘留后不久开始，传闻说他在高层的盟友发动了一场政变。

At the same time, however, there have been other signs that the censorship structure might change in the direction of greater freedom.
然而，在同一时间，有其他迹象显示，网路审查机制可能会朝向更大自由度的方向转变。

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.
自三月以来，已发生许多次突然可能进入被高度审查封锁的网站，例如1989年天安门抗议事件和大屠杀，或是法轮功精神运动，及其被共产势力的迫害。

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.
随着今年的关键领导层交替，党的派系权力斗争，主要问题之一将会是，改革者或强硬派，最后是哪一方将会控制中国广大的网路审查和监制制度。

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本专栏由前卫英语李德良老师主编 www.davidlee.url.tw