错误描绘印度地图或将受到重罚

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.

印度正在拟定一部严厉的新安全法。根据该法，如果谁发布“错误的”印度地图、把争议领土置于印度边境之外，可被判处7年徒刑、并处罚金1500万美元。

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.

印度总理纳伦德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)政府的内务部公布了这部法律的草案，用于征询外界的意见。根据这项草案，提供地图服务的机构——比如谷歌(Google)——须向一个“安全审查机关”提出申请，并购买使用官方地图数据的许可证。

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”.

这部《2016年地理空间信息监管法案》(Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016)立刻遭到印度新闻工作者和其他可能认为自身工作受到该法限制的人士的谴责。印度作家、历史学家拉玛昌德拉•古哈(Ramachandra Guha)表示，该法案“完全是精神错乱”的产物。

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.

莫迪领导的奉行印度教民族主义的人民党(Bharatiya Janata party)政府，可能比前几届印度政府更加仇视质疑印度对克什米尔主权的分离主义分子，甚至更加仇视将该地区形势准确描述为克什米尔是一块争议领土、现由印巴分占的外部观察人士。

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.

尽管印度是世界上最大的民主国家，拥有自由而充满活力的媒体，但包括英国《金融时报》在内，国际性报纸或杂志出版的显示克什米尔事实上分占状态地图的纸质刊物，在印度常被禁止发售，或者发售前必须先用黑色贴纸盖住相关地图。

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.

印度还与中国在喜马拉雅山存在长期的边境争议。印度拒绝承认中国对印度东部阿鲁纳恰尔邦(Arunachal Pradesh)全境的主权要求。

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.

上述法律草案称：“任何人都不得通过互联网平台或在线服务以任何电子或实物形式描绘、传播、出版或发行错误或不实的包含国际边界的印度地形信息。”错误描绘印度地图面对的最高惩罚将是罚款10亿卢比（合1500万美元）、并监禁多达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.

即使是现在，任何发布与官方版本“不符”的印度地图的人，若遭印度政府控告，也可被判处至多6个月徒刑。

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，该法案是“政府采取的一系列极端爱国主义举动中”的最新一例，将导致无辜民众受到骚扰。“事实是，克什米尔是一块争议领土。”