请向权力说真话—回应德49名学人公开信

Please Speak Truth to Power
A Response to the Open Letter by 49 German Scholars

我们是在世界各地包括中国国内使用中文的一批自由撰稿人和新闻工作者，在此愿就有关"德国之声"电台中文部近期引发的争议事件发表一些共同意见。
We are a group of Chinese freelance writers and journalists who live in different continents . We would like to response to the open letter which has been signed by 49 German scholars relating to the Deutsche Welle incident.

10月9日，以德国汉学家为主，并包括其他一些政界和文化新闻界的49名人士发出了一封致德国之声台长和德国联邦议会的公开信，要捍卫新闻的客观性和受到不公正待遇者（张丹红）的权利。其主要内容是：1，为德国之声记者张丹红的发言权辩护，保护她的权利。2，责备此前分别发表过公开信的"联邦共和国作家协会"和华人异议分子，认为他们提出对德国之声某些工作人员进行背景调查的要求有违新闻自由的原则；同时指称写信的中国异议分子是法轮功成员。3，声称写公开信者的目的是要阻止外界和中国的正常交流，和媒体对中国的公正报道。

On October 9, 49 individuals, most of them German sinologists but also including some political figures, writers and journalists, published an open letter to Deutsche Welle and to the German Bundestag, defending the objectivity of the news media and the rights of an unfairly treated individual (Zhang Danhong). The letter included the following main points: 1) defending the freedom of expression and rights of the Deutsche Welle journalist Zhang Danhong; 2) censuring the "Federal Republic Writers' Association" and Chinese dissidents for a previous open letter that had supposedly demanded a background investigation into certain Deutsche Welle employees, on the basis that this violated the principle of press freedom, and referring to the Chinese dissidents who wrote the letter as Falun Gong practitioners; 3) alleging that the objective of the open letter was to prevent normal exchanges between the outside world and China, and impartial reporting about China.

签名者中有很多是人到中年、经历了欧洲1968年学生运动的人士，他们现在是欧洲社会的中坚分子， 然而其思路难免有"政治正确"的模式倾向。公开信违背了一项新闻和学术最基本的原则：向权力说真话。

Many of the signatories of the open letter were middle-aged individuals who had experienced the 1968 student movements in Europe; now the backbone of European society, they inevitably tended toward "political correctness." Their open letter violated a basic principle of the news media and acedemia: speak truth to power.

张丹红有幸在自由国家从事新闻工作，但她违背自己的良心和职业道德，去为一个对她的新闻同业进行打压、封杀，甚至投入监狱的专制政权说话。张丹红不会不知道，奥运前，中国许多的记者、作家被封笔、软禁、流放甚至下狱，但她竟然在公开的论坛上向极权政府献媚，说出"中国共产党比世界上任何一支政治力量在实践人权宣言第三条方面的贡献都要大"的话，这不仅是失职，根本是犯了严重错误，人们提出来要调查她的背景，是完全可以理解的。这跟违反"新闻自由"的原则是两码事。德国之声电台对她的"处理"已经是最轻的了。

Zhang Danhong had the good fortune to engage in journalistic work in a free country, but she violated her own conscience and professional ethics by becoming a spokesperson for the autocratic regime that suppressed, shut out and even imprisoned members of her own journalistic profession. Zhang Danhong could not but have known that before the Beijing Olympics, many Chinese journalists and writers had been censored, placed under house arrest, removed from their cities of residence or even imprisoned, yet she continued to ingratiate herself with the totalitarian regime in an open forum with such words:"The Chinese Communist Party has contributed more than any other political forces in the accomplishment according to the third paragraph of the Human Right Declaration" . This was not only a dereliction of duty, but a serious error, and it was completely understandable that others should request an inevestigation into the background. This is a completely different matter from violating "press freedom." Deutsche Welle was in fact as lenient as it could be toward her in the handling of this matter.

４９位学者的公开信提出如何看待中国的发展和崛起的问题，要求德国新闻界对中国进行公正的报道。这是避重就轻、似是而非的一种说法。何为公正？难道只有像中共媒体的报喜不报忧那样，德国媒体的中国报道才算公正吗？难道德国媒体对中国的"扒粪"，仅仅是出于偏见吗？我们也可以提出一个类似的问题：如何看待当年德国日本和苏联的发展和崛起，并进行公正报道呢？

The open letter by the 49 scholars posed questions regarding how to regard China's development and rise, and demanded that the German news media report impartially on China. This specious statement sidesteps the real issue. What constitutes impartiality? Is it only reporting positive and not negative news about China, as the Chinese media are required to do? Can it be that the German media's "muck-raking" reports about China are simply biased? We can pose a similar question: how should others have reported impartially on the rise of Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union several decades before?

请反思德国的历史：如果二战之后，德国不经过非纳粹化（entnazifizieren=denacify）、战争罪犯不经过纽伦堡审判、没有布兰德总统跪在华沙犹太人的纪念碑下忏悔的历史场景，德国人因法西斯主义而蒙尘的精神和心灵损伤是不能恢复的，战后的经济起飞也是不能被自己和他人接受的。１９６８年的学生运动所追求的不也就是这份"历史真相"吗？

Please think back on Germany's history: If after World War II Germany had not undergone "entnazifizieren," or denazification, if the perpetrators of war crimes had not been obliged to undergo the Nurenberg Trials, if Willy Brandt had not knelt in mourning and repentence before the memorial to the Jews murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto, then the German people never have recovered from the spiritual damage caused by Naziism, and their post-war economic resurgence could never have been accepted by the rest of the world. Indeed, was not the 1968 student movement demanding this very "historical truth"?

请看看中国自中共执政以来，历经土改、反右、大饥荒、文革、上山下乡运动，一路下来中国人被无辜屠杀、凌辱的数字超过两三千万。中国政府至今不允许进行调查，也从来没有说过一句道歉的话。八十年代开始经济改革以来，社会上一有动荡，政府的反应就是动用军警镇压。从１９８３年的"严打"到１９８９年天安门的民主运动到２００６年的太石村事件，中国政府始终是站在中国人民的对立面。今天中国的经济繁荣的表象，很大程度是建立在一个庞大的、没有基本劳工和医药保险的赤贫农民工群体之上的。中国政府现在取代了以前地主、资本家的地位，成为人民最严酷的压榨者、最凶恶的土地掠夺者和产业强占者。

Please look back at the tens of millions of innocent victims of violence and humiliation in the course of China's land reform movement, anti-rightist campaign, great famine, Cultural Revolution and sending down to the countryside. The number of killed and devastated innocent people are more then 20 to 30 millions. Up to the present day, the Chinese government has not allowed any investigation into these crimes, nor has it uttered a word of apology. Since economic reform began in the 1980s, whenever there has been any social unrest, the government's response has been to suppress it through police and military action. From the 1983 "anti-crime crackdown" to the 1989 Tiananmen democracy movement to the 2006 Taishi Village incident, the Chinese government has set itself in opposition to the Chinese people. China's current image of economic prosperity is built to a great extent on the labors of an immense body of impoverished migrant laborers without basic employment protections or health benefits. The Chinese government has taken over the role previously held by the landlords and capitalists as the harsh and merciless exploiter and plunderer of the people's assets and labor.

是的，今天的中国比毛泽东时代"自由"多了，当时弄脏一张报纸上的毛主席像，就可能被杀头。今天很大部分人的生活比以前富裕，但是社会的不公、腐败的官场和社会风气更为令人惊心动魄。人们不得不自己起来争取权利。盲人律师陈光诚、维权律师郭飞雄、高智晟、作家杜导斌、记者师涛、爱滋维权者胡佳，他们都站在普通人的前面，但是政府把他们投入了监狱。

Yes, today's China is much more "free" than in the Mao Zedong era; back then, sullying a newspaper bearing the image of Chairman Mao was punishable by death. Today the majority of people live in greater prosperity than before, but social injustice, official corruption and social unrest have increased at a breath-taking rate. People have been compelled to rise up in defense of their own rights. The blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, the rights defense lawyers Guo Feixiong and Gao Zhisheng, the writer Du Daobin, the journalist Shi Tao, the AIDS activist Hu Jia -- they have all stood on the side of the common people, but the government has sent them all to prison.

在手握权柄的迫害者和无权无势的受害者之间，尊敬的教授们和博士们，你们生活在坚守自由价值的国家，却选择了站在权力的一边，你们选择了为不会遭到政治迫害的张丹红维权，却从来没有听说过你们为陈光诚、师涛去维权，你们冷眼旁观被剥夺了基本权利的中国人民，你们为他们被彻底剥夺的发言权辩护过吗？没有，相反地，你们却为残酷的剥削者助阵。

Respected scholars, you who live in a country that maintains the values of liberty, when presented with a choice between the powerful persecutors and the powerless victims, why do you choose to stand on the side of the powerful? Why do you choose to defend the rights of Zhang Danhong, who faces no political persecution, when you have never spoken up for the rights of Chen Guangcheng or Shi Tao? Gazing aloofly at the Chinese people who have been deprived of their basic rights, have you ever spoken in defense of their freedom of expression? You have not, but instead you have voiced your support for their ruthless exploiters.

汉学家们穷其精力来学汉语，却忘记了自己的德语里有个用来形容独立知识分子的形容词"unbequem"（令人不舒服、不安）。真正的知识分子永远应该站在权力的对立面，特别是不受制约的极权政府，格外应当受到监督和掣肘，知识分子应当让手中握有权力者感到不安。49位签名者，我们深感遗憾，你们没有秉承德国深厚的人文传统，也没有间接受到汉文化里志士仁人的熏染。你们的公开信让独裁者感到很舒服，很心安，却让普通中国人和正义之士感到失望，一种被出卖和被侮辱的失望。

As sinologists, you have exhausted all effort to learn the Chinese language, and in the proess you have forgotten the German adjective used to describe the independent intellectual: "unbequem" -- causing discomfort or unease. The true intellectual will always stand in opposition to those in power, and an unconditionally totalitarian government should be subjected to even more monitoring and restraint, with intellectuals causing all the more unease to the holders of power. We deeply regret that you 49 signatories have not followed in the profound German literary tradition, and have not benefited from the indirect influence of the loftiest ideals of Chinese culture. Your open letter has given comfort and peace of mind to dictators, while leaving China's ordinary people and defenders of justice feeling disappointed, betrayed and humiliated.

Tienchi Martin-Liao, Director of the Laogai Research Foundation, Editor-in-Chief of the Black Series, WashingtonDC , Editor-in-Chief of Arcus Chinatexte, Bochum, 廖天琪, 劳改基金会主任，《黑色文库》主编，德国《弓桥译从》主编，华盛顿
Wing Mui Tsoi ， Editor-in-Chief of Open Magazin, Hong,Kong 蔡咏梅， 香港 《开放杂志》主编
Yi Zheng , writer, Chairman of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, WashingtonDC郑义，作家，独立中文笔会会长，华盛顿
Yisan Wu, Writer, Hong Kong 武夷三，作家，香港
Xiaogang Zhang, General Secretary of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, freelance writer, Sydney独立中文笔会秘书长，自由撰稿人，悉尼
Lian Yang, Poet, Board member of the International PEN Center, London,杨炼，诗人，国际笔会理事， 伦敦
Yu Zhang， Former General Secretary of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, Coordinator for the Writers in Prison Committee, ICPC, freelance writer, Stockholm, 张裕，独立中文笔会前任秘书长，狱委协调人，自由撰稿人，斯德哥尔摩
Harry Wu, Executive Director of the Laogai Research Foundation, Publisher of the China Information Center, WashingtonDC ,吴弘达，劳改基金会执行主任，中国信息中心发行人，华盛顿
Chu Cai, Poet, Editor-in-Chief of Wild Grass, Editor of Democratic China, 蔡楚，诗人，《野草》主编，《民主中国》编辑
Kuide Chen, Scholar, Chairman of the China Study Association, Editor-in-Chief of Overview in China, Princeton/Washington DC陈奎德, 学者，中国学社社长，《纵览中国》主编
Emily Wu, Author of A Feather in Storm (Feder in Stom, Hoffmann und Campe Verlag) ， San Francisco巫一毛 , 作家(《暴风雨中一羽毛》)，旧金山
Jiazhen Qi, Writer, Melburn齐家贞， 作家，墨尔本
Wa Jing, Poet, California,井蛙，诗人，加州
Patrick Jiawei Poon, lawyer, Hong Kong潘嘉伟, 律师，香港
Luoying Hai, Writer, Melburn海落英, 作家，墨尔本
Ping Hu, writer, Editor-in-Chief of Beijing Spring, New York胡平 ，作家，北京之春主编， 纽约
Yongyi Song, Writer, Historian， California宋永毅 , 作家，历史学家， 加州
Nan Zhao, Freelance, Japan赵南, 自由撰稿人, 日本
David, Ding, writer? Where?丁强, 作家，？？
Liyong Sun, Freelance, Sydney孙立勇, 自由撰稿人,悉尼
Yue Jiang, Freelance, New York江月,作家，纽约
Minru Yan, Writer, Zurich??颜敏如，作家，瑞士
Yue Sun, Freelance, Moskau孙越 , , 自由撰稿人,莫斯科
JIanhong Li, Writer, Shanghai/Stockholm李剑红（小乔）， 作家， 上海/斯德哥尔摩,

(文章仅代表作者个人立场和观点)