VOA慢速英语2010年-IN THE NEWS - Group Says 2009 Was a 'B

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least seventy-one members of the media were killed last year around the world. A single act of political violence in the Philippines raised the number sharply compared to the year before. In November, gunmen killed nearly sixty people, including more than thirty journalists and media support workers. Philippine officials recently charged about two hundred suspects.

Andal Ampatuan Junior is the main suspect in the killing¹ of 57 people, many of them journalists, in the Philippines in November

It was the single deadliest attack on journalists since the committee began keeping detailed² records in nineteen ninety-two. The group, based in New York, released its latest report this week. The next deadliest countries in the top five were Somalia with nine killings³, Iraq and Pakistan with four each and Russia with three.

Robert Mahoney from the Committee to Protect Journalists says last year was not only a bad year for deaths.

ROBERT MAHONEY: "It was also a bad year for authoritarian⁴ and repressive governments putting journalists behind bars. We saw an increase in the number of journalists imprisoned⁵. Some one hundred thirty-six were imprisoned when we did our census⁶ in December and since then, things have gotten worse."

He pointed⁷ to the repression⁸ in Iran after the disputed presidential election in June. The group says more than ninety journalists were seized. Twenty-three remained in jail at the end of December. Iran is described as the second largest jailer of journalists after China.

Among those imprisoned in Iran was Newsweek magazine reporter Maziar Bahari. His jailers kept him by himself for one hundred eighteen days. He says Iranian officials are now turning their attention to bloggers.

MAZIAR BAHARI: "I think the government of Iran, in the beginning it did not pay attention to the cyberspace⁹, but recently they have passed a series of cyber crime laws and digital crime laws, that also includes the mobile texts and any kind of digital, as they call it "misinformation", that can be criminalized."

The Committee to Protect Journalists says bloggers in China are also under attack. Bob Dietz, an Asia expert with the group, says most Chinese journalists who are in jail now are there because of online activity.

But the group says the number of journalists jailed in China is down from a high of forty-two six years ago to about twenty-four today. Those who report on corruption¹⁰ are now considered more likely to lose their job than go to jail.

The report also documents abuses in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

An Iranian protester holds a picture of Neda Agha-Soltan. Her killing during protests against the June presidential election was recorded on video.

Today, anyone can bring news to the world over the Internet. Millions of people saw the video of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman shot to death in June during the protests in Iran. This week, Long Island University announced that the video will receive a George Polk Award. The awards are among the highest in American journalism¹¹.

It will recognize whoever recorded the video and uploaded it to the Internet. This is the first honor for a work whose creator is unknown in the sixty-one year history of the Polk Awards.

Another winner this year is a New York Times reporter who was held by the Taliban for more than seven months. David Rohde was kidnapped in Afghanistan and taken to Pakistan, where he escaped.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake and available online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter.

 

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

3 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

4 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

5 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

6 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

7 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

8 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

9 cyberspace   

n.虚拟信息空间，网络空间，计算机化世界

参考例句：

• She travels in cyberspace by sending messages to friends around the world.她利用电子空间给世界各地的朋友们发送信件。
• The teens spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.青少年花费在电脑上的时间比他们和真正的朋友及家人在一起的时间要多。

10 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

11 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。