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Reporters Without Borders has gone on the offensive, accusing governments of "impotence, cowardice¹ and duplicity" in failing to defend freedom of expression. The journalists' advocacy group's criticism comes in its annual report, released Wednesday.

记者无国界组织发起攻势，指责一些国家的政府“无能、懦弱、言行不一”，未能保障言论自由。这个记者维权组织在年度报告中提出上述批评。

Reporters Without Borders says 86 journalists were killed last year, the highest number since 1994. It says in many countries on all continents journalists do not get adequate protection, and the report accuses some repressive regimes of harming press freedom and journalists too.

记者无国界说，去年有86名记者被杀害。它说，在所有各大洲的许多国家里，记者没有得到足够的保护。这项报告指责一些压制性的政权损害新闻自由，迫害新闻记者。

The report, which looks at press freedom in 98 countries, takes aim not only at the "impotence, cowardice and duplicity" of government officials, but also at the U.N. Human Rights Council for caving in to pressure from countries such as Iran.

这项报告审察了98个国家的新闻自由状况，不但指责政府官员的“无能、懦弱和言行不一”，而且还指出联合国人权理事会屈服于伊朗等国家的压力。

The group's head of research Jean-Francois Julliard tells VOA some countries get away with curbs² on freedom of expression because Western governments allow them to do so. Western governments are sometimes more interested in protecting their economic interests than in advocating for human rights in other countries.

记者无国界组织的调查部门负责人朱利亚尔告诉美国之音记者，有些国家限制新闻自由却不被追究，因为西方政府允许他们这么做。西方政府有时把他们在经济上的利益看的比维护其它国家的人权更重要。

"First of all it's economic reasons, I think there are a lot of economic exchanges between powerful countries like Russia and China and European countries or North American countries so we have the feeling that presidents of European countries want to protect their industry and want to protect national companies so they are sometimes themselves under pressure of private companies which don't want that they speak too much about human rights," he noted³.

朱利亚尔说：“首先是基于经济的理由。我认为在强国俄罗斯和中国、以及欧洲和北美洲国家之间，有巨大的经济利益交换，因此我们感觉，欧洲各国的总统为了保护他们国家的工业和他们国家的公司有时会处于私营公司的压力之下，这些私营公司不希望他们谈论太多的人权。”

Julliard concedes that sanctions against offending regimes, for example in Zimbabwe and Uzbekistan, often do not produce desired improvements.

朱利亚尔承认，对迫害人权的政权实施制裁经常不会产生符合期望的改进。

The report says government officials are not the only enemies of a free press. It says extremist religious groups, drug traffickers, organized crime gangs, and armed rebels are among those who often act with brutality⁴ to stop journalists from looking into their activities.

这项报告说，政府官员并不是新闻自由唯一的敌人。它说，极端的宗教团体、贩毒组织、有组织的犯罪团伙和武装叛乱组织经常以残酷手段阻止新闻记者报导他们的行动。

The Paris-based group said journalists are facing another tough year, especially with elections in countries such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, where governments distrust independent media.

这个设在巴黎的组织说，新闻记者在2008年将面临另一个艰难的年份，特别是在阿塞拜疆、俄罗斯、巴基斯坦和津巴布韦等国家的选举当中，这些国家的政府都不信任独立的媒体。

Julliard says North Korea and Turkmenistan are among the worst violators of press freedoms.

朱利亚尔说，北韩和土库曼斯坦都在侵犯新闻自由情况最恶劣的国家之列。

"I'd mention three countries," he added. "North Korea is maybe the worst country in the world to be a journalist, because you cannot even speak about journalistic activity in North Korea. You can just relay the official propaganda. You are a civil servant, but not a journalist. The second one is Turkmenistan in Central Asia. It's a very closed country where there is no independent press at all. And the third one is Eritrea. In this country, the few independent journalists were arrested in 2001 and they are still detained in secret."

朱利亚尔说：“我要提到三个国家，北韩可能是世界上新闻记者的待遇最差的国家，因为你在北韩甚至不能提到媒体的活动，你只能作宣传的工具，你的身份是政府人员而不是新闻记者；第二个国家是在中亚的土库曼斯坦。那是一个非常封闭的国家，根本没有独立的新闻事业；第三是厄立特里亚。在这个国家里，有几名独立的新闻记者在2001年被捕，他们至今仍在秘密监禁中。”

On the bright side, Julliard says in some countries freedom of the press has improved. In Mauritania, he says, the government has lifted censorship, and a court in Haiti has imposed a heavy sentence in the case of a murdered journalist.

在光明的一面，朱利亚尔说，新闻自由在某些国家获得了改善。他说，在毛里塔尼亚，政府解除了新闻检查制度；同时，海地的一个法庭在一起谋杀记者的案件中对罪犯判了重刑。