《中英對照讀新聞》Phone hacking provides opening for Britain’s Miliband 電話竊聽案提供了英國工黨領袖米勒班大好良機
◎俞智敏
After months on the back foot, British opposition leader Ed Miliband has found his voice with the phone hacking row, leading the charge against one-time political kingmaker Rupert Murdoch.
在連續幾個月處於劣勢後,英國反對黨領袖米勒班終於在電話竊聽醜聞中找到了自己的聲音,帶頭對抗曾為政壇造王者的媒體大亨梅鐸。
Responding to the announcement that Murdoch’s News Corp. had bowed to political pressure over the hacking and withdrawn its offer for pay-TV giant BSkyB, Miliband said it was a victory for a scandalised public.
針對梅鐸旗下的「新聞集團」向電話竊聽案所引發的政治壓力低頭,宣布撤回收購付費電視台BSkyB(英國天空廣播公司)一事,米勒班回應說,這是憤慨英國民眾的勝利。
But others have noted that it has also been a good week for Miliband, who had been criticised for a slow start since he beat his older and better-known brother David to the Labour leadership in September 2010.
但其他人卻指出,這一週對米勒班本人而言也是好事連連,自從他在去年9月擊敗知名度較高的哥哥大衛.米勒班、當選工黨領袖後,就一直被批評起步太慢。
"A Labour leader is born", the left-leaning Independent newspaper said in an editorial recently, while the conservative Daily Telegraph declared that "Ed Miliband’s moment has come -- as defender of a free press".
「工黨領袖誕生了,」左傾的「獨立報」最近在社論中寫道,而保守派的「每日電訊報」也宣稱,「艾德.米勒班,自由媒體捍衛者的時候已經到來。」
It was at Miliband’s request that Prime Minister David Cameron announced a public inquiry into the claims that the News of the World hacked the phone of a murdered teenager, and it was the Labour leader who tabled a motion in parliament calling on News Corp. to withdraw its offer for BSkyB.
在米勒班的要求下,首相卡麥隆才宣布對「世界新聞報」被控竊聽一名被謀殺的青少女手機一案進行公開調查,而在國會中提出動議呼籲新聞集團撤回BSkyB收購案的同樣也是米勒班。
新聞辭典
opening:名詞,指機會、成功的好時機,如She waited patiently for her opening, then exposed the report’s inconsistency.(她耐心等待機會來臨,然後一舉揭發報告中的矛盾處。)
on the back foot:英式俚語,指採取防守姿勢,居於不利地位,如Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is "on the back foot", UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox says, citing new momentum in Nato’s air campaign.(英國國防部長福克斯舉北約空襲的全新氣勢表示,利比亞領袖格達費已經「居於劣勢」。)
bow to sb/sth:指(在不情願的情況下)向某人或某事屈服,如Eventually the government was forced to bow to public pressure and reform the tax.(政府終究還是被迫向民意壓力屈服,決定改革稅制。)