《查理週刊》 對言論自由的血腥攻擊

The bloody assault on the offices of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, can only provoke the most profound revulsion. This was a dreadful terrorist atrocity that has claimed the lives of at least 12 innocent people.

針對法國諷刺雜誌《查理週刊》(Charlie Hebdo)編輯部的血腥攻擊，只能招來最深刻的厭惡。這是一起可怕的恐怖主義暴行，造成了至少12名無辜者喪生。

Our first response must be to mourn the victims, four of whom were the magazine’s well-known cartoonists and two of them police officers. But this was more than a human tragedy. It was a calculated act of intimidation, an attack on the freedom of expression that is the pillar of any democratic society. It was designed to seed an insidious form of self-censorship. It must be roundly and defiantly condemned.

我們的第一反應必須是悼念遇難者，其中4人是該刊的著名漫畫家，還有2人是警察。但是，這不止是一起人間悲劇，這是一起經過謀劃的恐嚇行爲，是對任何民主社會賴以生存的言論自由的攻擊，其目的是播下某種潛意識中自我審查的種子。這必須受到全面和不屈的譴責。

Nearly a decade has passed since a Danish newspaper first attracted the ire of Muslims by publishing cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Mohammed. What started with peaceful protests and consumer boycotts has steadily descended into violence. This is not the first time Charlie Hebdo has been attacked for publishing its own cartoons satirising Islam. Its offices were firebombed three years ago.

自丹麥一家報紙首先刊登諷刺先知穆罕默德的漫畫、引起穆斯林的憤怒以來，已經過去了近10年。最初的和平抗議和消費者抵制，已逐漸演變爲暴力。這已經不是《查理週刊》第一次因爲發表了諷刺伊斯蘭教的漫畫而受到攻擊。該刊編輯部曾在3年前遭到燃燒彈襲擊。

But yesterday’s events mark a new and sinister step in the escalating conflict between faith and free expression. The sight of three masked men wielding AK47s in the middle of a European capital, gunning down policemen and stalking the magazine’s offices in search of their victims, will understandably send a chill throughout the western world.

但是，昨日的事件標誌着，信仰和言論自由之間不斷升級的衝突走出了新的、惡毒的一步。三名蒙面男子在一個歐洲國家首都的街上揮舞AK47突擊步槍，射殺警察，在雜誌編輯部四處尋找受害者——這一幕會讓整個西方世界感受到一股寒意，這是可以理解的。

For the security services in France and across Europe, the attack will prompt many questions. It is unclear whether the assailants were on the radar of the French authorities and whether they were assisted by overseas militant groups.

對法國乃至整個歐洲的情報機構而言，此次攻擊將引發很多問題。目前還不清楚襲擊者是否早已進入法國有關部門的視線，以及他們是否得到境外武裝組織的協助。

Many of the recent jihadist attacks — in Sydney and Ottawa — have been conducted by “lone wolves”. The concerted nature of Wednesday’s assault — and also the attackers’ flight from the scene rather than resorting to siege and suicide tactics — suggests a less familiar modus operandi.

近期的多起聖戰者襲擊（在悉尼和渥太華）都是由所謂“孤狼恐怖分子”進行的。週三這起攻擊的協同特性——以及襲擊者從現場逃離、而不是訴諸於劫持人質和自殺戰術——似乎指出了一種人們不太熟悉的手法。

In the days ahead many will be watching the impact on French society. At a time of deep political and economic malaise, the anti-immigrant National Front led by Marine Le Pen may profit from a new burst of anti-Islamic feeling. The attack is a challenge to the state authorities who must now find the attackers and bring them to justice. But the broader challenge is for politicians and the public to cleave to France’s core secular values and express defiance without stoking the fires of blind revenge.

在未來幾天裏，很多人將關注法國社會受到的影響。在該國深陷政治和經濟困境之際，以馬琳•勒龐(Marine Le Pen)爲首的反移民政黨“國民陣線”(National Front)，可能受益於一股新的反伊斯蘭情緒。此次襲擊是對政府有關部門發起的挑戰，這些部門現在必須追查襲擊者，將他們繩之以法。但更爲廣義的挑戰在於，政治人物和公衆要堅守法國的核心世俗價值觀，在不挑動盲目復仇之火的前提下表達反抗情緒。

In any democratic society, there should always be room for a civilised debate about taste and propriety when it comes to the mockery of any religious faith. But what cannot be challenged is the fundamental right of all citizens to express themselves freely within the law. In an age marked by growth in religious belief and the increasing politicisation of faith, all religion must be open to opinion, analysis and lampoonery.

在涉及到針對任何宗教信仰的諷刺時，任何一個民主社會都應當有文明辯論的空間，讓各方就品味和尺度界限各抒己見。但不容挑戰的是，所有公民都有在法律範圍內自由表達自己的根本權利。在宗教信仰勢力壯大、信仰日益政治化的當今時代，所有宗教都必須對觀點、分析和諷刺抱有開放心態。

In the past quarter century there have been many attempts to use intimidation to silence satire and dissent. The Iranian regime set the precedent when it issued a fatwa against the author Salman Rushdie in response to his book The Satanic Verses. North Korea used cyber violence to prevent the distribution of an unflattering film about its leader Kim Jong Un.

過去四分之一世紀期間，先後有過不少使用恐嚇手段壓制諷刺和異見的嘗試。伊朗政權確立了先例，發出針對作家薩爾曼•拉什迪(Salman Rushdie)的追殺令，就爲了他寫的小說《撒旦詩篇》(The Satanic Verses)。朝鮮最近使用網絡暴力試圖阻止一部嘲諷該國領導人金正恩(Kim Jong Un)的電影發行。

Now we have the appalling spectacle in Paris. The response of the free world to this must be unwavering. Charlie Hebdo may be a very different publication to our own, but the courage of its journalists — and their right to publish — cannot be placed in doubt. A free press is worth nothing if its practitioners do not feel free to speak.

現在，我們又見證了巴黎街頭的駭人景象。自由世界對此的反應必須是堅定不移的。《查理週刊》也許是一份與本報非常不同的出版物，但其採編人員的勇氣——以及他們的出版權利——是不容置疑的。如果新聞從業者感覺不到言論自由，新聞自由就沒有什麼價值了。