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讀紐時學英文
2021/10/08 第353期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 Politics Steered India’s Defense To Virus Threat 印度疫情肆虐 政治掛帥是主因
Fox-Style News Network Rides Wave of Discontent in France 法國版福斯新聞 4年躍居收視龍頭
紐時周報精選
 
Politics Steered India’s Defense To Virus Threat 印度疫情肆虐 政治掛帥是主因
文/Karan Deep Singh
譯/莊蕙嘉

印度疫情肆虐 政治掛帥是主因

The forecast was mathematically based, government-approved and deeply, tragically wrong.

這個預測以數學為根據,是政府批准的,而且悲劇性的大錯特錯。

In September 2020, eight months before a deadly COVID-19 second wave struck India, government-appointed scientists downplayed the possibility of a new outbreak. Previous infections and early lockdown efforts had tamed the spread, the scientists wrote in a study that was widely covered by the Indian news media after it was released last year.

在致命的第二波疫情侵襲印度的八個月前,政府指派的科學家在2020年9月低估新一波疫情可能性。科學家在研究中寫道,之前的感染和及早封城作法已抑制傳播,這項研究去年發表時印度媒體廣泛報導。

The results dovetailed neatly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two main goals: Restart India’s stricken economy and kick off campaigning for his party in state elections that spring. But Anup Agarwal, a physician then working for India’s top science agency, which reviewed and published the study, worried that its conclusions would lull the country into a false sense of security.

研究結果漂亮迎合總理莫迪的兩個主要目標:重啟印度受打擊的經濟,以及在春季舉行的全國選舉為他的政黨開始助選。但是,當時審閱及出版這篇報告的印度頂尖科學機構醫師艾納普.安格瓦憂心,報告結論可能誤導國家產生錯誤的安全感。

Agarwal took his concerns to the agency’s top official in October. The response: He and another concerned scientist were reprimanded.

安格瓦去年10月向機構最高官員表達他的憂心,結果他和另一名科學家被訓斥。

In the wake of the devastating second wave, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, many in India are asking how Modi’s government missed the warning signs. Part of the answer is that senior officials forced scientists at elite institutions to downplay the threat to prioritize Modi’s political goals.

察覺到強大的第二波疫情奪走數十萬條人命後,印度許多人想問,莫迪政府何以未能發現示警跡象。答案的一部分是,高級官員迫使菁英機構科學家低估威脅,以優先實現莫迪政治目標。

“Science is being used as a political weapon to forward the government narrative rather than help people,” said Agarwal, 32.

32歲的安格瓦說,「科學被當武器使用,讓政府推動政策而非幫助民眾」。

Senior officials at Agarwal’s agency — called the Indian Council of Medical Research, or ICMR — pressured scientists to withdraw another study that called the government’s efforts into question.

安格瓦所在機構「印度醫學研究協會」的高級官員對科學家施壓,收回另一篇質疑政府做法的研究。

Agency scientists described a culture of silence. Midlevel researchers worried that they would be passed over for promotions and other opportunities if they questioned superiors, they said.

機構裡的科學家描述這裡的沉默文化,他們說,中層研究人員擔心,如果他們質疑上層主管,可能錯過升遷或其他機會。

“Science thrives in an environment where you can openly question evidence and discuss it dispassionately and objectively,” said Shahid Jameel, one of India’s top virus experts and a former government adviser who has been critical of the agency.

印度頂尖病毒學家之一、曾批評該機構的前政府顧問夏希德.賈米爾說,「在你可以公開懷疑證據,且可以冷靜客觀討論的環境中,科學才能進步」。

“That, sadly, at so many levels, has been missing,” he said.

他說「令人傷心的是,在許多層面,這已不復見」。

India is hardly the first country where virus science has become politicized. The United States remains far short of taming the disease as politicians and anti-vaccine activists, fueled by disinformation and credulous media, challenge the scientific consensus on vaccines and wearing masks. The Chinese government has tried to obscure the outbreak’s origin, and vaccine skeptics have won audiences from Russia to Spain to Tanzania.

印度不算是第一個病毒科學變得政治化的國家。美國遠遠談不上控制疫情,而政客和反疫苗人士被假新聞和不實媒體搧風點火,質疑疫苗和戴口罩的科學共識。中國政府試圖在疫情起源打迷糊仗,且從俄羅斯、西班牙到坦尚尼亞,都有人聽信疫苗懷疑論者。

 
Fox-Style News Network Rides Wave of Discontent in France 法國版福斯新聞 4年躍居收視龍頭
文/Norimitsu Onishi
譯/陳韋廷

法國版福斯新聞 4年躍居收視龍頭

It’s the news network that claims it tells viewers what the “woke” mainstream media won’t. It says it fights for endangered freedom of expression, even as it has been fined by the government’s broadcast regulator for inciting racial hatred.

這家新聞台聲稱,能告訴觀眾那些「警醒」的主流媒體不會說的事。它說它為瀕危的言論自由而戰,即便已因為煽動種族仇恨而遭政府廣播監管機構罰款。

It is CNews — which in four short years became France’s No. 1 news network for the first time in May by giving a bullhorn to far-right politicians, opponents of fighting climate change and a high-profile proponent of the discredited idea of using the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19.

它就是CNews,短短四年,於今年5月首次成為法國第一名的新聞台。他們提供發聲管道給極右翼政治人物、反對應對氣候變遷人士,以及高調支持使用抗瘧疾藥物羥氯奎寧治療新冠的人,儘管這想法不被採信。

The model is Fox News — including the clashing talking heads and incendiary cultural topics — and it has worked. Owned by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, former chairman of the media group Vivendi, CNews increasingly helps shape the national debate, especially on hot-button issues like crime, immigration and Islam’s place in France that are expected to sway next year’s presidential election.

福斯新聞是其榜樣,手法包括衝突性訪問內容與煽動性文化話題,且已收到成效。法國億萬富豪、媒體集團威望迪前董事長博洛黑擁有的CNews,愈來愈會塑造全國性辯論話題,尤其是犯罪、移民、伊斯蘭教在法國地位等料將影響明年總統選舉的熱門議題。

In a country where trust in the media is very low, CNews emerged at a time of particular discontent — in the aftermath of the Yellow Vest protests of 2018, which, like the U.S. election of Donald Trump, prompted much soul-searching among journalists.

在一個對媒體信任度非常低的國家,CNews的出現,正值2018年黃背心抗議後民眾特別不滿之時,就像川普當選美國總統一樣,這引起很多記者深刻反思。

“People were sick and tired of the politically correct, and, in France, for the past 30, 40 years, news was in the hands of newspapers, television and dailies that all said the same thing,” said Serge Nedjar, the head of CNews, explaining how his channel positioned itself in a nation with four all-news networks.

CNews負責人內德賈解釋自家頻道在一個擁有四家新聞台國家的定位時說:「人們對政治正確感到厭煩,在法國,過去30年、40年,掌握新聞的報紙、電視與日報說的都是同樣的事。」

Unlike its competitors, CNews focused on “analyses and debates” of topics that Nedjar said mattered most to the French but had been ignored or insufficiently covered by the media: “crime, lack of safety, immigration.”

不同於對手,CNews專注於「分析和辯論」內德賈所說對法國人最重要卻被忽視或報導不足的事:「犯罪、缺乏安全、移民」。

He added: “We created this network by telling ourselves we talk about everything, including topics that are explosive.”

他還說:「我們成立電視台時告訴自己,我們無話不談,包括爆炸性話題。」

Nedjar said that he was unfamiliar with Fox News when CNews was created and waved away comparisons.

內德賈說,CNews成立時他對福斯新聞台不熟悉,也拒絕做比較。

“There’s the word ‘news,’ and all the better if it works like Fox News,” he said, referring to his network’s name. “Fox News works really well over there, I hear.”

他提及他的電視台名字時說:「有『新聞』這個字,若它能像福斯新聞那樣運作就更好了。我聽說福斯新聞在那邊作得很不錯。」

But critics say the problem is not with CNews’ choice of topics but with the way it treats them. They say its emphasis on opinion, often backed up with little reporting or fact-checking, propagates popular biases and deepens cleavages in a polarized society.

但批評者說,問題不在於CNews的話題選擇,而是它對待話題的方式。他們說,它強調觀點,很少以報導或查核事實來支持,這助長了偏見,加深兩極分化社會的裂痕。

 
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我們是一所在巴黎南部Corbeil-Essonnes市郊區的小學。就在我面前,一群孩子們圍坐成一個圓圈,討論著那些連大人們都覺得很難回答的問題,像是生命與死亡、公平、種族、友情和愛情。

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每個人都那麼充實快樂地活著,而我卻覺得自己似乎快被世界遺忘了,不會被人記得。電話沒有響起,通訊軟體沒有新訊息,關機三天,再開機會發現──根本沒有人找你。這是一種多麼痛徹心腑的失落感。
 
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