(本文选自《经济学人》20210313期)
背景介绍：
去年5月，在席卷美国的“黑人的命也是命”抗议活动中，《得梅因纪事报》的记者安德里亚·萨胡里在抗议现场进行报道时被警方喷射胡椒喷雾后拘捕。如今，这位记者被检方指控“未能及时撤离”与“干扰警方执法”，这引发美国民众对“新闻自由”的关注。
Press freedom under pressure
The wrong person went on trial in Des Moines, Iowa, this week. Andrea Sahouri, a journalist for the Des Moines Register, testified in court on March 9{+th} about her rough treatment—her lawyer called it “assault”—by a policeman last year.
本周，在爱荷华州得梅因市，一个无辜的人遭受了错误的审判。3月9日，《得梅因纪事报》记者安德里亚·萨胡里在法庭上表示，她去年受到了一名警察的粗暴对待（她的律师将其称之为“殴打”）。
Along with a colleague, she had been observing a protest against police violence and racial injustice on May 31st. Though she stood away from protesters, a policeman in helmet and gas mask rushed up and, without warning, she says, “grabbed me, pepper-sprayed me.”
去年5月31日，她和一位同事一同参与了一场警察暴力和种族歧视抗议活动的现场报道。尽管她站的地方离抗议者很远，但一名戴着头盔和防毒面具的警察还是向她冲了过来，在没有向她发出任何警告的情况下，她说，“他抓住了我，并对我喷了胡椒喷雾。”
Even as she called out “I’m press, I’m press,” he handcuffed her and a friend. Her colleague and a passing television camera crew both identified her as a journalist, to no avail.
就在她喊道“我是记者、我是记者”的时候，这名警察将她和她的一位朋友铐了起来。她的同事以及一个路过的电视摄像人员都向警察证实了她的记者身份，但仍无济于事。
Such things happen at chaotic moments, when adrenalin is high and tear-gas flies. Much of the past year was exceptionally
frantic
. A tally kept by the US Press Freedom Tracker, an industry body, counts 128 journalists arrested across America in 2020, a huge increase from 9 reporters detained in 2019.
此类事件往往发生在肾上腺素飙升、催泪弹飞扬的混乱时刻。过去一年，美国乱象丛生。据行业机构“美国新闻自由追踪组织”统计，2020年，全美各地共有128名记者被捕，较2019年（仅有9名）显著增多。
Many were caught up in summer protests related to Black Lives Matter or over virus-related lockdowns. Police detained one CNN presenter, Omar Jimenez, as he reported on live television. Kirstin McCudden, of the Tracker, says last year they counted “violations against journalists in 36 states. It wasn’t a one-off, we saw it night after night.”
许多记者之所以被捕与去年夏天“黑人的命也是命”及新冠病毒封锁抗议活动有关。警方拘捕了在抗议活动现场直播报道的 CNN 节目主持人奥马尔·希门尼斯。美国新闻自由追踪组织的克里斯汀·麦克库登说，去年，他们对 “36个州针对记者的侵犯行为进行了统计。这不是偶发事件，而是一次又一次在上演。”
Some reporters say police, or members of the public fired up by Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the press as “enemies of the people”, violently targeted them. Usually, however, arrests are almost the end of the story.
一些记者表示，警察和公众对记者的愤怒或源于唐纳德·特朗普频繁攻击媒体为“人民公敌”，于是才会以暴力方式对待他们。不过，逮捕通常就是故事的结局。
Seattle police, for example, detained Andrew Buncombe, a British journalist with the Independent, for not
dispersing
while he reported on protests in July. The officer ignored State Department-issued press credentials round his neck, he says.
以《英国独立报》安德鲁·邦库姆为例，他因去年7月报道抗议活动时未能及时撤离而被西雅图警方拘留。他说，警察无视他脖子上挂着的由美国政府颁发的记者证。
Put into handcuffs, leg shackles and a belly chain, he was thrown into a crowded cell for hours. But then, as usually happens, he was released with no charges.
他被拷上了手铐、脚链和腹链，并被关在一个拥挤的牢房几个小时。但随后，如往常一般，他被无罪释放。
Prosecutions
of journalists in such cases almost never follow detention, because the First Amendment grants the press explicit freedoms to monitor events in the public interest.
在此类案件中，记者几乎从来不会在被拘留后受到起诉，这是因为《第一修正案》明确赋予了新闻工作者监督公共利益事件的自由。
States’ attorneys can in theory still choose to prosecute, but they usually realise how bad it looks. Of the 128 arrests last year, for example, Ms McCudden says charges have so far been dropped or never brought in most.
从理论上讲，各州检察官仍然可以选择起诉，但他们通常会意识到结果有多糟。麦克库登说，就像去年128起记者被捕事件，到目前为止，除开没有提起诉讼的，大部分提起诉讼的案件都已撤销。
Yet Iowa’s Polk County is an exception. The aggressive officer was not charged. Instead, it was Ms Sahouri (and her former boyfriend and co-accused) who sat in the dock this week, charged with failing to disperse and interfering with the work of the police.
然而，爱荷华州的波尔克县是个例外。非但那位咄咄逼人的警察没有受到指控，反而是萨胡里（以及她的前男友，两人为同案被告）于本周坐在了被控席上，他们被指控未能及时撤离以及干扰警察的工作。
Nine months after her detention the Polk County attorney, John Sarcone, insisted that the trial should go ahead, though he would not explain why. The jurors were unimpressed: on March 10th, after brief deliberation, they issued not-guilty
verdicts
for both of the accused.
在两人被拘留9个月后，波尔克县检察官约翰·萨尔科恩坚持认为应该继续对两人进行审判，但他不愿解释原因。陪审员们对此并不认同：3月10日，经过短暂商议后，他们对两名被告作出了无罪判决。
Ms Sahouri said afterwards she had been “unjustly assaulted and arrested”. Her editor at the Register, Carol Hunter, called the process “an unjust prosecution of a reporter who was doing her job.”
萨胡里事后表示，她遭受了“不公正的殴打和逮捕”。《得梅因纪事报》的编辑卡罗尔·亨特称，这是“对一名正在履行职责的记者不公正的起诉”。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
多年来，美国一直被捧为世界上最讲"新闻自由"的地方，很多人也认为能够从美国媒体的报道中得到最真实、最全面、最客观的报道。然而，从去年一连串记者被捕甚至被起诉的事件来看，美国所谓的"新闻自由"或许并没有那么自由。
frantic
[ˈfræntɪk] adj. 狂乱的，疯狂的
