词汇大师-- Say What You Want on the Web

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: More about a legal strategy that critics call by the acronym¹ SLAPP -- a strategic lawsuit² against public participation³.
Let's say some community activists⁴ are trying to persuade the local government to reject a development project. The developer might sue them for defamation⁵ and seek millions of dollars in damages. The developer might have little chance of winning, but the activists still have to defend themselves against the lawsuit. The use of SLAPPs began to grow in the nineteen seventies as Americans became more active in government.

　　GEORGE PRING: "SLAPPers are not all bad people and SLAPPees, or SLAPP victims, they're not all good people either. But what we're saying is, there's always a better place to solve a public governmental issue, better than the courts."
Law professor George Pring wrote a book with sociologist⁶ Penelope Canan called "SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out." Since it was published in 1996, he says, more than half the states have adopted anti-SLAPP laws similar to the model they proposed. But now there's a new breed of SLAPP.
GEORGE PRING: "Just the way SLAPPs against government communication exploded in the nineteen seventies, we're seeing an explosion now in the twenty-first century of lawsuits⁷, generally by economic interests, against the bloggers, the Facebookers, the tweeters, people who text. Even texting can get you in trouble.
"Interestingly enough, big companies, you're always thinking about this Goliath vs. David. It's usually not. It's usually Davids vs. Davids. Big companies -- you know, BP, British Petroleum⁸, whatever -- have many, many other ways to counteract⁹ public criticism. Of course, BP isn't doing such a good job right now."
AA: "And how are courts coming down on this, how are they ruling in cases like David vs. David, meaning smaller company vs. a private citizen type case?"
GEORGE PRING: "That's the problem, in the states that either have only a protection for communications to government or no protections at all."
RS: "And what model would you put here to resolve these cases? You suggested a model that you wrote about in your book, but what model for the new media would you suggest?"
GEORGE PRING: "The California model, or even better the new bill that is in the United States Congress right now, the anti-SLAPP bill. It would protect and dismiss quickly a lawsuit attacking communications with government or a lawsuit attacking communications to the public on an issue of interest to the public."
RS: "And finally I'd just like to ask one last question about how the lawsuits and the freedom of speech and the trials that you're talking about, not only the trials in court but the trials of living through such a situation, how does this characterize who we are as Americans?"
GEORGE PRING: "From a constitutional law standpoint, a human rights standpoint, America protects free speech at an extreme unmatched by any other government, which is both good news and bad news. It depends on which side of the issue you're on. In our country, typically, cases brought in defamation, libel, slander¹⁰, are very hard for the filer of the lawsuit -- the SLAPPer -- to prove. In other countries like England, the roles are entirely¹¹ reversed and it's the speaker who is in big trouble in the lawsuit and basically has to prove total innocence¹² and total truth.
"So what it tells us about America is generally speaking we view speech, expression, as a free market in ideas. And people are going to put things into the market that aren't true, that aren't valuable, that aren't worthwhile. But we don't want the government, we particularly don't want the courts to act as censors¹⁴. And what these cases are is nothing more or less than asking the courts to censor¹³ public discourse¹⁵ on public issues."
AA: George Pring is a law professor at the University of Denver in Colorado. You can find the first part of our interview at voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

2 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

3 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

4 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 defamation   

n.诽谤；中伤

参考例句：

• Character defamation can be either oral or written.人格诽谤既可以是口头的也可以是书面的。
• The company sued for defamation.这个公司因受到诽谤而提起诉讼。

6 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

7 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

8 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

9 counteract   

vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some medicine to counteract the effect of the poison.医生给他些药解毒。
• Our work calls for mutual support.We shouldn't counteract each other's efforts.工作要互相支持，不要互相拆台。

10 slander   

n./v.诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• The article is a slander on ordinary working people.那篇文章是对普通劳动大众的诋毁。
• He threatened to go public with the slander.他威胁要把丑闻宣扬出去。

11 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

12 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

13 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

14 censors   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the President. 审查员删去了该书的精华以取悦于总统。
• The censors let out not a word. 检察官一字也不发。

15 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。