錯誤描繪印度地圖或將受到重罰

India is proposing a draconian new security law that could lead to seven years in jail and a $15m fine for anyone who publishes a “wrong” map of the country that shows disputed territory as lying outside its borders.

印度正在擬定一部嚴厲的新安全法。根據該法，如果誰發佈“錯誤的”印度地圖、把爭議領土置於印度邊境之外，可被判處7年徒刑、並處罰金1500萬美元。

The draft law, published for consultation by the home affairs ministry of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, will require organisations that offer maps, such as Google, to apply to a “security vetting authority” and buy licences to use official mapping data.

印度總理納倫德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)政府的內務部公佈了這部法律的草案，用於徵詢外界的意見。根據這項草案，提供地圖服務的機構——比如谷歌(Google)——須向一個“安全審查機關”提出申請，併購買使用官方地圖數據的許可證。

The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016 was immediately condemned by Indian journalists and others likely to find their work constrained by the legislation. Ramachandra Guha, the Indian writer and historian, called it “completely deranged”.

這部《2016年地理空間信息監管法案》(Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016)立刻遭到印度新聞工作者和其他可能認爲自身工作受到該法限制的人士的譴責。印度作家、歷史學家拉瑪昌德拉•古哈(Ramachandra Guha)表示，該法案“完全是精神錯亂”的產物。

Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party is, perhaps to an even greater extent than previous Indian governments, irritated by separatists who contest India’s sovereignty of Kashmir and even by outside observers who accurately describe the situation — that Kashmir is disputed and its territory split between Pakistan and India.

莫迪領導的奉行印度教民族主義的人民黨(Bharatiya Janata party)政府，可能比前幾屆印度政府更加仇視質疑印度對克什米爾主權的分離主義分子，甚至更加仇視將該地區形勢準確描述爲克什米爾是一塊爭議領土、現由印巴分佔的外部觀察人士。

Although India is the world’s largest democracy and has free and energetic media, hard copies of international newspapers or magazines that publish maps showing the de facto partition, including the Financial Times, are routinely prevented from being distributed in India or must have the maps covered with black stickers.

儘管印度是世界上最大的民主國家，擁有自由而充滿活力的媒體，但包括英國《金融時報》在內，國際性報紙或雜誌出版的顯示克什米爾事實上分佔狀態地圖的紙質刊物，在印度常被禁止發售，或者發售前必須先用黑色貼紙蓋住相關地圖。

India also has a long-running border dispute in the Himalayas with China, and rejects its neighbour’s claim to the whole of its eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

印度還與中國在喜馬拉雅山存在長期的邊境爭議。印度拒絕承認中國對印度東部阿魯納恰爾邦(Arunachal Pradesh)全境的主權要求。

The draft bill says: “No person shall depict, disseminate, publish or distribute any wrong or false topographic information of India including international boundaries through internet platforms or online services in any electronic or physical form.” The maximum penalty for wrongly depicting the map will be a fine of Rs1bn ($15m) and imprisonment for up to seven years.

上述法律草案稱：“任何人都不得通過互聯網平臺或在線服務以任何電子或實物形式描繪、傳播、出版或發行錯誤或不實的包含國際邊界的印度地形信息。”錯誤描繪印度地圖面對的最高懲罰將是罰款10億盧比（合1500萬美元）、並監禁多達7年。

Even now, anyone publishing a map of India “not in conformity” with the official ones can be jailed for up to six months if the government complains.

即使是現在，任何發佈與官方版本“不符”的印度地圖的人，若遭印度政府控告，也可被判處至多6個月徒刑。

Mr Guha said the bill was the latest of “a series of hyper-jingoistic moves that the government has made” and would lead to the harassment of innocent people. “The fact is that Kashmir is a contested territory.”

古哈表示，該法案是“政府採取的一系列極端愛國主義舉動中”的最新一例，將導致無辜民衆受到騷擾。“事實是，克什米爾是一塊爭議領土。”