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Censorship -- And be damned
这该死的审查制度
Dangerous Ideas. By Eric Berkowitz.
《危险的思想》。作者：埃里克·伯克维茨
This lively and wide-ranging history of censorship opens with a wise reminder. “The compulsion to silence others”, writes Eric Berkowitz, an American lawyer and author, “is as old as the urge to speak.” As a firm believer in free speech, Mr Berkowitz views censorship through the ages as mostly futile, perverse or wrong. Yet he grasps that neither side in this ancient contest is pure or simple. Nor, in his engrossing account, do either free speech or its opponents ever win final victories.
这段鲜活而广泛的审查史开启了一次明智的提醒。美国律师兼作家埃里克·伯克维茨写道：“强迫他人保持沉默与说话的冲动一样古老。”作为言论自由的坚定信仰者，伯克维茨认为历代的审查制度大多是徒劳的、反常的或错误的。但他明白，这场古老竞赛的参与双方都不单纯。在他引人入胜的叙述中，言论自由或反对者都从来没有赢得过最后的胜利。
Mr Berkowitz focuses chiefly on the United States and Britain, with glances at other European countries—such as 17th- and 18th-century France, famous for libelles, scurrilous and usually sexual attacks on royalty, clergy and other notables. He briefly widens the field at the end for a discouraging look at enemies of free speech in less liberal or less democratic places.
伯克维茨的作品主要聚焦于美国和英国，同时也关注了其他欧洲国家，比如17世纪和18世纪的法国，这些国家以对皇室、神职人员和其他知名人士的诽谤、造谣以及频繁的性攻击而闻名。他在书的结尾处简单地升华，对那些在缺乏自由或民主的地方反对言论自由的人并不看好。
Silencers of speech operate directly and indirectly. The most obvious direct kind is state censorship. It may forbid speech unless cleared in advance (pre-censorship), punish it after the event (criminal libel) or burden publishers and media with undue regulations or taxes. Speech here includes not just voicing or disseminating words but proclaiming your faith as you wish, campaigning for your chosen causes and making art without interference.
言论消音器直接和间接地发挥着作用。国家审查是最明显的直接形式。它可能禁止言论，除非进行了事先清除（提前审查），事后惩罚（刑事诽谤），或以过度监管或税收施压出版商和媒体。这里提到的言论不仅包括发声或传播文字，还包括随心所欲地宣讲自己的信仰，为自己选择的事业奔走，以及不受干预地创作艺术。
Pre-censorship has often proved self-defeating. With the coming of print, books as a rule needed licence before publication. In Britain, where licensing was outsourced to the printers’ guild, prior control proved ineffective and corrupt, and was abandoned by the end of the 17th century. The papal Index of Forbidden Books (1559- 1966), backed by the law in many Catholic countries, gave publicity to works that would otherwise have remained obscure. The harder Soviet censors worked, the stronger grew underground papers, political jokes and public disbelief.
事实证明，提前审查的做法常常是在自欺欺人。随着出版业的到来，书籍通常在出版前需要获得许可证。英国的许可业务曾经被外包给了印刷商协会，但事实证明，提前的管控无效且腐败，英国在17世纪末也放弃了这种提前审查的模式。在许多天主教国家的法律支持下，教皇的《禁书索引》（1559-1966）为那些原本不为人知的作品提供了宣传。苏联审查人员越努力审查，地下报纸、政治笑话和公众的不信任感就越猖獗。
Criminal libel, which replaced pre-censorship in common-law countries, might be seditious, obscene or blasphemous. That threefold division tracked the silencers’ chief preoccupations: political dissent, fascination with sex and disregard for religion. Prosecutions continued even late into the 20th century. Especially before juries, they could backfire, as Mr Berkowitz recounts with relish. In 1817 William Hone was charged in Britain with blasphemy for parodying church liturgy. In defence, Hone read out passages of his parodies that so reduced the courtroom to laughter that acquittal was assured. Obscenity trials have commonly stumbled on the prosecution’s dilemma as to whether to say the unsayable or primly allude to it.
刑事诽谤取代了英美法系国家的预先审查制度，它可能分为煽动性的、淫秽的或亵渎神明的。这三重划分拿捏了言论消音器的主要关注点：政治异议、性迷恋和漠视宗教。此类起诉一直持续到20世纪末。但在伯克维茨津津有味的叙述中，起诉可能会适得其反，尤其是在面对陪审团的时候。1817年，英国的威廉·霍恩因模仿教堂礼拜仪式而被指控亵渎神明。霍恩在辩护中宣读了他模仿的段落，法庭上的一片笑声保证了他的无罪。淫秽罪的审判通常会让检方陷入两难境地，他们纠结于犯人是说了不该说的话，还是只是简单地暗示。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
