《纽约时报》、《华尔街日报》、《华盛顿邮报》致中国政府公开信

Publishers of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post wrote in a joint open letter.
《纽约时报》、《华尔街日报》和《华盛顿邮报》出版商的一封联合公开信

The coronavirus pandemic sweeping across borders, sickening and killing people in nearly every country, and sending the world economy into a downward spiral, is a global challenge unlike any other in our lifetimes. Perhaps more than any major news event in modern history, this moment underscores the urgent importance of both probing, accurate, on-the-ground reporting from the centers of the pandemic and of sharing the information, insights and lessons that reporting reveals as widely as possible.

冠状病毒正横扫世界开始大流行，几乎在每个国家都造成了疾病和死亡，并使世界经济陷入恶性循环，这是我们一生中所面临的最大挑战。与现代史上的任何重大新闻事件相比，这一刻或许更强调了中美双方应从全球大流行病中心进行深入、准确、实地的报道以及尽可能广泛地分享报道所提供的各类信息、各种见解和各个教训的紧迫性。

In this moment of shared crisis, China has decided to expel American journalists from a number of news organizations, including the three we oversee, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times. This move — made in retaliation for recent expulsions by the United States government — is one that we would protest under any circumstances. But it is uniquely damaging and reckless as the world continues the struggle to control this disease, a struggle that will require the free flow of reliable news and information.

在这个共同的危机时刻，中国决定将美国若干新闻机构记者驱逐，包括我们所监管的《华尔街日报》、《华盛顿邮报》和《纽约时报》。这一行动是为了报复美国政府最近的驱逐行动，我们在任何情况下都会抗议中方的这种行为。在全世界持续努力抗疫之际，这种行为具有独特的破坏性且过于鲁莽，因为抗疫斗争需要可靠的新闻和信息的自由流通。

We strongly urge the Chinese government to reverse its decision to force the Americans working for our news organizations to leave the country and, more broadly, to ease the growing crackdown on independent news organizations that preceded this action. The media is collateral damage in a diplomatic dispute between the Chinese and U.S. governments, threatening to deprive the world of critical information at a perilous moment.

我们强烈呼吁中国政府收回强迫我新闻机构美国工作人员离开中国的决定，并在更广泛的范围内减轻对独立新闻机构在这一驱使行动之前日益增长的打压。在中美两国政府之间的外交争端中，媒体是附带着受害，驱赶行为有可能在危险的时刻剥夺全世界关键时刻需要的重要信息。

The earliest reports on the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan and its rapid spread were brought to the outside world by the journalists who work for us in China, as well as their colleagues for other leading news organizations. We have sent our reporters to live for extended periods in the center of the outbreak to document the toll of the disease and the struggle to treat those afflicted with it. We have prominently featured news and analysis about China’s remarkable progress in reducing the spread of the virus through containment and mitigation. Even now, with some of our journalists facing imminent expulsion, they are reporting on how China is mobilizing state resources to develop vaccines that could offer hope to billions of people there and around the world.

最早关于武汉冠状病毒的爆发和迅速传播的报道是由我们驻中国的记者和其它主要新闻机构的同事报道出来的。我们已经派遣记者在疫情爆发中心长期驻守，以此记录疾病的死亡人数和治疗相关患者的各种努力。我们重点报道并分析了有关中国通过遏制以及采取相关缓解措施在减少病毒传播方面取得显著进展的新闻。即便现在，我们的一些记者在即将被驱离的情况下，还在报道中国是如何调动国家资源来进行疫苗开发的，这可能给中国和世界各地的数十亿人带来希望。

Our news organizations are rivals. We compete with each other on the biggest stories, including this one. But on this matter we speak with a single voice. Both countries — and the rest of the world — benefit from having talented journalists, many of them fluent in Chinese and versed in Chinese culture, cover the world’s second largest economy, the center of global manufacturing, and, unfortunately, a population hard hit by one of the worst pandemics of modern times. Even when this crisis passes we believe both countries will continue to benefit from freer access to news and information about the other.

我们的新闻机构是竞争对手。两国在重大新闻上相互竞争，也包括这件事。然而这件事，只有我们单方面的声音而已。中国和美国——以及世界其它地方——都受益于有才华的记者，他们中的许多人能说流利的中文，精通中国文化，遍布在世界第二大经济体，全球制造的中心，不幸的是，他们中的一部分遭受了现代最严重的全球大流行病之一的沉重打击。即使这场危机过去，我们相信，两国将继续受益于更加自由获取有关对方的新闻和信息。

Amid tensions between superpowers, journalism bolsters strong, confident societies by providing to leaders and citizens important information and awareness to inform their lives and decisions — even, perhaps especially, when it is challenging to governments. We believe it is unambiguously in the interests of the people of both countries, as well as their leaders, to let journalists do their work.

面对超级大国之间的紧张对峙，新闻工作则通过向领导人和社会公众提供重要信息和意识，为他们的生活和决策提供信息，从而支撑着强大、自信的社会——甚至，尤其可能是政府正面临挑战的时候。我们相信，让记者从事自己的工作，无疑符合两国人民以及两国领导人的利益。

William Lewis, Publisher, The Wall Street Journal
Fred Ryan, Publisher, The Washington Post
A. G. Sulzberger, Publisher, The New York Times

威廉•刘易斯，《华尔街日报》出版人
弗雷德•瑞恩，《华盛顿邮报》出版人
A. G. 苏兹伯格，《纽约时报》出版人

2002年3月24日

英文来源： https://www.nytco.com/press/an-open-letter-to-the-chinese-government/

翻译： 吕芳