☆真题原文☆

The government is to ban payments to witnesses by newspapers seeking to buy up people involved in prominent cases such as the trial of Rosemary West.

In a significant tightening of legal controls over the press. Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor, will introduce a draft bill that will propose making payments to witnesses illegal and will strictly control the amount of publicity that can be given to a case before a trial begins.

In a letter to Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the House of Commons media select committee. Lord Irvine said he agreed with a committee report this year which said that self regulation did not offer sufficient control.

Publication of the letter came two days after Lord Irvine caused a storm of media protest when he said the interpretation of privacy controls contained in European legislation would be left to judges rather than to Parliament.

The Lord Chancellor said introduction of the Human Rights Bill, which makes the European Convention on Human Rights legally binding in Britain, laid down that everybody was entitled to privacy and that public figures could go to court to protect themselves and their families.

"Press freedoms will be in safe hands with our British judges," he said.

Witness payments became an issue after West was sentenced to 10 life sentences in 1995. Up to 19 witnesses were said to have received payments for telling their stories to newspapers. Concerns were raised that witnesses might be encouraged to exaggerate their stories in court to ensure guilty verdicts.

☆单词讲解☆
1. ban n. 禁令 vt. 禁止, 取缔(书刊等)
2. witness n. [律]证人, 目击者, 证据, 证明, 证词 vt. 目击, 为...作证, 证明, 表明 vi. 作证, 成为证据
3. prominent adj. 1 卓越的2 显著的, 突出的
4. significant adj. 有意义的, 重大的, 重要的
5. tighten v. 变紧, 绷紧, 拉紧
6. legal adj. 法律的, 法定的, 合法的
7. chancellor n. 长官, 大臣
8. draft n. 草稿, 草案, 草图 vt. 起草, 为...打样, 设计 v. 草拟[固定搭配] on draft 散装的，直接汲取的从一个大容器中汲取的，如酒桶；
9. committee n. 委员会
10. protest n. 1 主张, 断言2 抗议 v. 1 主张2 断言抗议；拒付
11. privacy n. 独处而不受干扰, 秘密
12. convention n. 1 大会；协定2 习俗, 惯例
13. verdict n. 1[律](陪审团的)裁决, 判决, 判断2 定论, 结论

全文翻译：
政府将要查禁报界付款给那些牵涉到大案要案(诸如罗斯玛丽.韦斯特案件)的证人以图收买他们的行为。

为了更有效地对新闻界实施合法监控，大法官埃尔文勋爵将草拟法案。该法案将提出，付款给证人是非法的；在审判开始前，对案件的暴光程度也要严格控制。

在写给下议院新闻媒体选择委员会主席杰拉尔德.考夫曼的信中，埃尔文勋爵说，他赞同委员会今年的报告，该报告称，自我约束并未发挥足够的监控作用。

埃尔文勋爵说，对欧洲立法中所包涵的关于个人隐私监控权的解释，将留给法官，而不是议会。这招致新闻媒体的一片抗议。此后两天，信被公之于世。大法官说，《人权法案》的引入使得《欧洲人权公约》在英国有了法律效力，它规定了人人都享有个人隐私权，公众人物也可以走上法庭去保护自己及其家人的权利。

他说：“由我们英国的法官来负责，新闻自由将安然无恙。”

1995 年，罗斯玛丽.韦斯特被判十项无期徒刑，此后，付款给证人的做法成为人们关注的问题。据说有多达十九个证人由于向报界讲述其经历而获得了报酬。这就引起了人们的关注，证人为了确保被告被判有罪，他们可能会被怂恿在法庭上夸大他们经历的事情。

我的总结帖：
The government is to ban payments to witnesses by newspapers seeking to buy up people involved in prominent cases such as the trial of Rosemary West.
政府将要查禁报界付款给那些牵涉到大案要案(诸如罗斯玛丽.韦斯特案件)的证人以图收买他们的行为。
(觉得这句好难翻译，还是语法太差了~）

trialn. 审判,试验,艰苦,麻烦事,考验a. 尝试的,试验性的

draft  n. v. 草稿,草图,起草 n. 通风,气流,穿堂风 n. 拖,拽,牵引 v. 征兵,征集 n.生啤酒

illegal  a. 违法的,不合规定的

sufficient  a. 足够的,充分的

Parliament    n. 议会;(英国)国会同义参见:congress
legally      ad. 法律上,合法地

interpretation    n. 解释,阐明;翻译

in safe hand ...安然无恙
sentence     n. 句子,意见,宣判;   v. 宣判,判决;
Concerns were raised that witnesses might be encouraged to exaggerate their stories in court to ensure guilty verdicts.
这就引起了人们的关注，证人为了确保被告被判有罪，他们可能会被怂恿在法庭上夸大他们经历的事情。
exaggerate   vt. 夸张,夸大
参考例句：
Bob has a tendency to exaggerate things.
鲍勃有爱夸张的倾向。

guilty    a. 有罪的,内疚的
ensure     vt. 保证,担保;保护,使安全

参考例句：
I can't ensure that he will be there in time.
我不能确定他会及时到那里。

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