美国国家公共电台 NPR--Prince Harry is set to testify in a phone hacking trial involving British tabloids

Prince Harry¹ is set to testify in a phone hacking² trial involving British tabloids⁴

Transcript⁵

He is scheduled to appear in a London court — one of several plaintiffs suing British papers for allegedly hacking their phones. It's a practice the British tabloids have been notorious for.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This week in London, Prince Harry is set to do something that has not been done by any British royal for more than a century. He's going to take the witness stand in court. The Duke of Sussex is set to testify in a phone-hacking trial. He is one of several plaintiffs suing British newspapers for allegedly hacking their phones. It's been a notorious and apparently⁶ longstanding practice of the British tabloids, as NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from London.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE⁷: In 2002, a 13-year-old girl named Milly Dowler vanished on her way home from school. A nationwide search followed. And Milly's mom, Sally, went on TV pleading.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SALLY DOWLER: If someone has taken Milly and is holding her then, please, please, give her back to us.

FRAYER: Sally and her husband, Bob, kept calling their daughter's cellphone. Her voicemail was always full - until four days later.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DOWLER: I rang her phone.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.

DOWLER: And it clicked through onto her voicemail, so I heard her voice.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.

DOWLER: And I was - it was just like I jumped. She's picked up her voicemails, Bob. She's alive.

FRAYER: That's Sally testifying before a government inquiry⁸ nine years later about her false hope, because Milly was already dead, murdered by a serial⁹ killer¹⁰. And her voicemail had been hacked¹¹ by a newspaper covering the story.

JACQUI HAMES: There's always been a role for investigative reporting. But there has to be a public interest for it. And those lines were clearly being crossed.

FRAYER: Former police detective Jacqui Hames' own phone was hacked by a newspaper eager for clues in a murder her husband was investigating. The paper even hired private eyes to snoop around their house.

HAMES: We had two very young children at the time. Things were moved in our garden. Our mail was tampered¹² with. And at one stage, we were followed.

FRAYER: This was in the early 2000s, when Rupert Murdoch's U.K. tabloids actually made profits and held sway even with prime ministers, says media analyst¹³ Alice Enders.

ALICE ENDERS: It was just a huge kind of industrial operation to drive sales, you know? And there were always pictures of Mr. Murdoch going into Number 10. And they tried very hard to cover their tracks. But when everybody does it, it becomes part of the culture.

FRAYER: That culture is largely gone now, killed off by phone encryption, falling ad revenues and the closure of the Murdoch tabloid³ News of the World, seen as the biggest offender¹⁴. His company has paid more than $1 billion to settle hacking claims. But trials have been rare until Prince Harry decided¹⁵ to sue over stories he says are based on material obtained illegally.

ENDERS: He has the financial resources. He's lending his celebrity¹⁶, his notoriety. And he will not stop. These paparazzi, who were they? The paparazzi that chased his mother through the streets of Paris.

JIM WATERSON: This is more of a kind of revenge mission, I think.

FRAYER: The Guardian's media editor, Jim Waterson, says this may be personal for Prince Harry. But the raucous¹⁷ British tabloids have already had their power curtailed¹⁸ by new privacy laws that may now be stricter than those even in the U.S.

WATERSON: Some of the things you see on sites like TMZ would just not be publishable in the U.K.

FRAYER: A public accounting¹⁹ of just how far up the chain of command phone-hacking went, which executives knew what and when, that hasn't really happened, at least not to the extent former police detective Jacqui Hames would like. She's now an activist²⁰ with a group called Hacked Off, which campaigns for justice for hacking victims.

HAMES: I didn't like being labelled a victim. And I'm not going to let them get away with it. If you keep at it, that truth will out.

FRAYER: This week, she'll be watching as Prince Harry, after breaking with the royal family and moving to the U.S., appears in a London courtroom determined²¹ not to give up this fight.

Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London.

1 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

2 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

3 tabloid   

adj.轰动性的，庸俗的；n.小报，文摘

参考例句：

• He launched into a verbal assault on tabloid journalism.他口头对小报新闻进行了抨击。
• He believes that the tabloid press has behaved disgracefully.他认为小报媒体的行为不太光彩。

4 tabloids   

n.小报，通俗小报（版面通常比大报小一半，文章短，图片多，经常报道名人佚事）( tabloid的名词复数 )；药片

参考例句：

• The story was on the front pages of all the tabloids. 所有小报都在头版报道了这件事。
• The story made the front page in all the tabloids. 这件事成了所有小报的头版新闻。

5 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

6 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

7 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

8 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

9 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

10 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

11 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

12 tampered   

v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄

参考例句：

• The records of the meeting had been tampered with. 会议记录已被人擅自改动。 来自辞典例句
• The old man's will has been tampered with. 老人的遗嘱已被窜改。 来自辞典例句

13 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

14 offender   

n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者

参考例句：

• They all sued out a pardon for an offender.他们请求法院赦免一名罪犯。
• The authorities often know that sex offenders will attack again when they are released.当局一般都知道性犯罪者在获释后往往会再次犯案。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

17 raucous   

adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的

参考例句：

• I heard sounds of raucous laughter upstairs.我听见楼上传来沙哑的笑声。
• They heard a bottle being smashed,then more raucous laughter.他们听见酒瓶摔碎的声音，然后是一阵更喧闹的笑声。

18 curtailed   

v.截断，缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Spending on books has been severely curtailed. 购书开支已被大大削减。
• Their public health programme had to be severely curtailed. 他们的公共卫生计划不得不大大收缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

20 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

21 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。