俄欲“以牙還牙”重手打壓外國媒體

Russia is preparing a crackdown on foreign media groups in response to US measures against RT, the Kremlin’s foreign-language television channel.

俄羅斯準備打壓外國媒體集團，以迴應美國對俄羅斯政府的外語電視頻道RT採取的措施。

Hastily drafted amendments passed a first reading in the lower house of parliament on Tuesday that would apply Russia’s law on “foreign agents” to the media. The bill, which could come into law as early as this week, would give Russia’s justice ministry the power to ban any media outlet that receives funding from abroad.

週二，一項倉促起草的修正案在俄國家杜馬（即下議院）通過了一讀，該修正案將把俄關於“外國代理人”的法律適用於媒體。該修正案最早可能會在本週成爲法律，它將賦予俄司法部門查禁一切收受海外資金的媒體的權力。

The Move is a response to a decision by the Department of Justice to make RT register as a foreign agent in the US. Russia’s response, however, goes much further as the media becomes increasingly central to the stand-off between Moscow and Washington over alleged Kremlin meddling in the campaign that led to Donald Trump being elected US president.

此舉是爲了迴應美國司法部(Department of Justice)把RT登記爲在美的外國代理人的決定。不過，俄方的迴應可謂又向前大大邁進了一步。目前，媒體日益在莫斯科與華盛頓的對峙當中佔據核心位置，這場對峙圍繞的是克里姆林宮涉嫌干預美國選戰、導致唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)當選美國總統一事。

Russia has yet to specify which media it intends to sanction under the law, though some lawmakers have floated CNN, the broadcaster owned by Time Warner, Germany’s Deutsche Welle, and Radio Free Europe, the US-funded Cold War-era network.

俄羅斯尚未言明它打算依據該法懲治哪些媒體，儘管有些議員提到了時代華納(Time Warner)旗下的廣播電視公司CNN、德國的德國之聲(Deutsche Welle)以及美國資助的冷戰時代電臺自由歐洲電臺(Radio Free Europe)。

Media caught up in the law face a ban if they do not mark themselves as “foreign agents” — a Soviet-era term synonymous with spying in Russia — in an as yet unspecified way.

落入該法適用範圍的媒體，若不把自己標記爲“外國代理人”（在俄羅斯，這個蘇聯時代的詞與間諜活動基本同義），將面臨被查禁的後果。具體的標記方式尚未言明。

Valentina Matvienko, speaker of the upper house, said the amendment was a necessary reaction to the “American government propaganda machine that has begun to persecute Russian media”, according to the Interfax news agency.

據俄羅斯國際文傳電訊社(Interfax)報道，俄羅斯上議院議長瓦蓮京娜?馬特維延科(Valentina Matvienko)表示，該修正案是對“已開始迫害俄羅斯媒體的美國政府宣傳機器”做出的必要反應。

RT said last month that the DoJ was forcing it to register as a foreign agent after a US intelligence report said that the channel and sister site Sputnik were part of a Kremlin “influence campaign” aimed at boosting Mr Trump’s campaign at the expense of his opponent Hillary Clinton. Twitter banned RT and Sputnik from advertising on the site as a result.

RT上月表示美國司法部正強迫其登記爲外國代理人，此前美國情報部門一份報告稱，該電視頻道及其姐妹網站Sputnik參與了克里姆林宮提振特朗普選情、打壓其對手希拉里?克林頓(Hillary Clinton)的“影響活動”。Twitter因此禁止RT和Sputnik在其網站上打廣告。