VOA标准英语2013--Iraqi Journalists Battle to Report Freely

 

Iraqi Journalists Battle to Report Freely

Live from a studio at al-Baghdadia TV, Murtada Mohamed Ali is reporting on how journalists are being prevented from covering a Baghdad cultural festival.

Al-Baghdadia focuses a great deal on political events, such as upcoming local elections and corruption¹. Manager Mohamed Hanoon Kareem says that, as a result, the station has been shut down twice in the past three years.

“Many on our staff have been arrested and harassed³ by security forces," he says. "And sometimes when something happens, like an explosion, they won't let us cover it. Then sometimes they let us because it is not important to them.”

Ziad al-Ajili heads the media watchdog, Journalistic Freedoms Observatory⁴. He says journalists now must obtain numerous permissions to cover even routine events.

“We publish a report on media freedom every year," he says. "This year's is the worst ever. The government has made new rules to pressure journalists and prevent us from working freely, especially the foreign media.”

Journalists face harassment⁵ by security forces as seen in this video by an Iraqi reporter who filmed himself being beaten while saying repeatedly that he was a journalist.

Activists⁶ say more than 140 journalists have been killed in Iraq in the past 10 years, one of the highest casualty rates in the world.

Dibras al-Ma'mouri founded the Iraqi Women Journalists Forum⁷. She says female Iraqi reporters face even more challenges, from security forces as well as from colleagues.

“In Iraqi society they look at women as a lowly thing, not a working human being," she says. "They harass² them. They try to prevent them from working. They think the woman was made just for housework and nothing else.”

Kareem of Baghdadia-TV says objective reporting by Iraq's journalists is also rare.

“About 90 percent of Iraqi journalists follow some ideological⁸, political or sectarian opinion," he says. "A few are working objectively. They are the ones who face problems with the government.”

Media activists say laws are needed to allow journalists to work freely in Iraq and to protect them. 

1 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

2 harass   

vt.使烦恼，折磨，骚扰

参考例句：

• Our mission is to harass the landing of the main Japaness expeditionary force.我们的任务是骚乱日本远征军主力的登陆。
• They received the order to harass the enemy's rear.他们接到骚扰敌人后方的命令。

3 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

4 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

5 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

6 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》

7 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

8 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。