【导读】 “无人机”是一种装载摄像机和信息传输装置的遥控小型飞行器，越来越多地运用在新闻采集领域。利用无人机进行的拍摄成本低廉，风险小，轻便灵活，可以说无孔不入。但随之而来的法律问题特别是关于隐私权的争议也颇让人伤脑筋。
Drone journalism
无人机新闻
Eyes in the skies
空中的眼睛
Drones often make news. They have started gathering it, too
无人机常常做新闻主角，如今本身也做新闻采集了。
Mar 29th 2014 | From the print edition
Those magnificent reporters’ flying machines
飞行器中的好记者！
THE news footage is striking: fires burn on the streets of Kiev; scorched banners flutter on buildings; madding crowds stumble through the chaos below. It is also strange: although aerial, it does not look as if it was shot from a helicopter. The camera flies right up to burning buildings; people on the ground so near that you can pick out the colour of their clothes. In fact it was taken by a drone, a small, remote-controlled flying machine fitted with a camera and a transmitter. Though the word suggests an unmanned military craft of the sort Americans use to kill their enemies in Afghanistan, drones have civilian purposes, too. Their ability to go where cameramen cannot means that newsgathering, increasingly, is one of them.
这是震撼人心的画面：基辅的街道上烈焰熊熊；烧焦的旗帜在建筑物上飘扬；下面发狂的人群跌跌撞撞，乱作一团。这也是新奇的场景：虽然实在空中，但又不像是在直升机的航拍。镜头可以直接飞临燃烧的建筑物上方；地上的人群离得很近，连衣服的颜色都清晰可辨。其实，这是由无人机拍摄的，无人机是一种小型的遥控飞行器，上面安装了摄像机和信号传送装置。虽然一提到无人机，人们就想到那种美国人用来在阿富汗作战的无人驾驶的军用飞行器，但是无人机也有民用目的。在这些民用目的中，新闻采集越来越重要了，因为它们能去摄影记者无法到达的地方。
In the past few months drones shot the most revealing footage of the protests that toppled Viktor Yanukovych, its corrupt president. They have also offered a bird’s-eye view of civil conflict in Thailand, Venezuela and elsewhere. They let journalists capture scenes that previously would have put their lives in danger, and made it harder for governments to lie. Journalists used drones to cover protests in Bangkok in December, filming clashes without having to dodge police tear gas and water-cannon, or lumps of concrete hurled by protesters. Drone footage published online to get around the Venezuelan government’s control of traditional media has contradicted official estimates of low numbers at anti-government rallies.
在过去几个月中，无人机拍摄了示威者推翻腐败的亚努科维奇总统的镜头，最为发人深省。无人机也给泰国、委内瑞拉和其他地方的国内冲突来了个鸟瞰。无人机使得记者捕捉到那些政府无法抵赖的场景，而在以前这会非常危险。记者用无人机采访了12月的曼谷的示威游行，拍摄冲突场面而不需要躲避警方的催泪弹、高压水枪或者是示威者扔过来的水泥块。无人机视频的在线发布，绕开了委内瑞拉政府对传统媒体控制，是对官方低估参加反政府集会的人数的有力反驳。
Drones are helping journalists overcome logistical hurdles, too. They have recently been used to cover fires raging in the Australian bush, and floods in southern England. “[Drones] give you a unique, airborne perspective that you can’t get any other way,” says Thomas Hannen of the BBC’s Global Video Unit. Their relative cheapness (basic models cost a few hundred dollars; fancier ones a few thousand) means that shots that once required a helicopter or a complicated set-up of gantries and wires are now achievable on a tight budget. And their usefulness will only grow as cameras get better and batteries last longer.
无人机也可帮助新闻记者克服后勤保障的困难。他们最近被用来采访澳大利亚丛林肆虐的大火，以及英格兰南部的洪水。英国广播公司全球视频部的托马斯·汉嫩认为：“（无人机）给你独一无二的，空中的视角，这是其他方式无法企及的。” 其相对便宜的价格（基本型需数百美金；发烧级需几千美金）意味着：曾经需要动用直升机或布置全景悬臂架和导线的拍摄，现在即使经费紧张也可完成了。并且其效能只会随着摄像机性能的提高与电池的续航能力延长而增长。
The rules governing drone journalism are tighter in America than elsewhere, says Matt Waite of the Drone Journalism Lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Only hobbyists and the government can use them; commercial entities are banned. That does not, of course, mean that they are not used for newsgathering, just that the only footage available is shot by amateurs. When a building in Manhattan collapsed on March 12th, for example, drone footage shot by a passing local soon turned up on news sites.
内布拉斯加州立大学林肯分校的无人机新闻实验室马特·韦特认为：无人机拍摄的管控条例在美国最为严格。只有业余玩家和政府允许使用，而盈利性实体则不行。当然，这并不意味着无人机就不能采集新闻，只是说只有业余人士拍的视频才被政府允许。比如： 3月12日曼哈顿的一幢房子倒塌，路过的当地人用无人机拍的视频很快就出现在新闻网站上了。
Britain allows commercial drone flights, provided the machines do not stray far from their pilots on the ground. But getting permission to use the machines in heavily populated areas is difficult, so they have mostly been deployed in the countryside. Australia is more permissive: Fox, a television network, has used a drone to cover cricket matches.
英国允许商用无人机的飞行，前提是飞机离地面的操作者不太远的话。但如果在人口稠密区域要想获得许可就很难，所以无人机大多在农村一展拳脚。澳大利亚就宽松得多：福克斯广播公司已经用无人机报导板球赛了。
America’s Federal Aviation Administration says it plans new, less restrictive rules. But as drone-assisted journalism becomes commonplace, other legal fights are sure to flare up. One about privacy looks inevitable, since today’s laws were written when reporters moved in just two dimensions. The walls celebrities build round their houses will be useless once every paparazzo has a $500 flying camera.
美国联邦航空管理局称将计划新的更少限制的规则。但基于无人机协助下的新闻采访活动变得司空见惯，其他的法律争议也必将激增。其中，关于隐私的争议就绕不开，因为现行法律制订的时候，记者还只能在二维空间行动。而现在，只要狗仔队弄一个500美元的飞行摄像机，那些名流们在住宅周围建一圈围墙也没用了。
From the print edition: International
本文原文出自《经济学人》杂志社 翻译：沈竹 校对：韦永睿
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