《每日郵報》向特朗普夫人道歉並賠償大綱

The Daily Mail has apologised to Melania Trump and agreed to pay unspecified damages after the wife of the US president brought a libel lawsuit against the newspaper group.

《每日郵報》(Daily Mail)已向梅拉尼婭?特朗普(Melania Trump)道歉，並同意支付金額不詳的損害賠償金，此前美國總統的夫人對這家報業集團提起誹謗訴訟。

Catrin Evans QC, representing Associated Newspapers, the British parent company of the Daily Mail and Mail Online, said in a statement read at the High Court in London yesterday the “defendant acknowledges that these claims about the claimant are untrue and we retract and withdraw them”.

昨日在倫敦高等法院宣讀的一份聲明中，代表《每日郵報》和“郵報在線”(Mail Online)的英國母公司聯合報業(Associated Newspapers)的御用大律師卡特琳?埃文斯(Catrin Evans QC)表示，“被告承認有關原告的這些說法是不屬實的，我們收回並撤回這些說法”。

Ms Evans added: “The defendant is here today publicly to set the record straight and to apologise to the claimant for any distress and embarrassment that the articles may have caused her.”

埃文斯補充說：“被告今日在這裏公開糾正視聽，並就涉案文章可能已對原告造成的任何痛苦和尷尬向她道歉。”

John Kelly, representing Mrs Trump, said yesterday that Associated Newspapers had agreed to pay damages but did not specify an amount.

代表特朗普夫人的約翰?凱利(John Kelly)昨日表示，聯合報業已同意支付損害賠償金，但沒有透露具體金額。

However, the settlement is believed to be much smaller than the $150m in damages Mrs Trump had been seeking. According to one person familiar with the matter, the total settlement is about $3m, including legal fees.

但是，和解金額據信遠遠低於特朗普夫人此前請求法庭命令的1.5億美元損害賠償金。據一名知情人士介紹，和解總額約爲300萬美元，包括法律費用。

Mrs Trump launched a suit against Associated Newspapers last September over an August 20 article with the headline “Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump”. The article cited a Slovenian magazine’s report that a modelling agency, which employed Mrs Trump in the 1990s, had also served as an escort service.

特朗普夫人去年9月對聯合報業提起訴訟，涉及後者在8月20日發表的一篇報道，其標題爲《豔照和有關他太太的過去的令人不安的問題，可能破壞特朗普選情》(Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump)。該報道援引斯洛文尼亞的一篇雜誌報道稱，曾在上世紀90年代僱傭特朗普夫人的一家模特公司，還提供伴遊服務。

Although the Daily Mail published a retraction two weeks later, the paper and its online edition, Mail Online, stopped short of offering a full apology for reporting what Mrs Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, described as the “100 per cent false” rumours.

雖然《每日郵報》在兩週後發表了一份收回聲明，但該報及其在線版“郵報在線”都沒有對報道特朗普的律師查爾斯?哈德(Charles Harder)所稱的“100%虛假”謠言作出全面道歉。

In February, Mrs Trump settled a separate claim in Maryland against Webster Griffin Tarpley, a US blogger, and refiled the lawsuit against the Daily Mail’s publishers in New York, claiming the article had hurt her chances of establishing “multimillion-dollar business relationships” while in the White House.

今年2月，特朗普夫人在馬里蘭州對美國博主韋伯斯特?格里芬?塔普利(Webster Griffin Tarpley)提起的訴訟達成和解。隨即她對《每日郵報》在紐約的出版商再度提起訴訟，稱涉案文章損害了她在白宮期間建立“數百萬美元商業關係”的機會。

That led to claims Mrs Trump was cashing in on her position as First Lady, prompting Mr Harder to refile the claim once more, dropping a reference to a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to commercially exploit Mrs Trump’s “brand”.

這一說法導致有人聲稱，特朗普夫人在利用其第一夫人地位牟利，這促使律師哈德又一次遞交訴狀，刪除了有關商業化利用特朗普夫人“品牌”的“一生一遇的機會”的提法。

A joint statement from Associated Newspapers and Mrs Trump yesterday said the agreement to pay “damages and costs” to the First Lady would settle both the lawsuit in the UK and the lawsuit in the US.

聯合報業和特朗普夫人昨日發表一份聯合聲明，稱向第一夫人支付“損害賠償金和費用”的協議，將了結在英國和美國的訴訟。

In an interview with the Guardian last year, Mr Harder, who successfully represented retired wrestler Hulk Hogan in his $140m case against Gawker Media that led to its sale to Univision, explained why Mrs Trump was determined to take on the Daily Mail.

去年在接受《衛報》(Guardian)採訪時，曾經成功代表退休摔跤手哈爾克?霍根(Hulk Hogan)對Gawker Media提起1.4億美元訴訟，最終導致這家媒體公司被出售給Univision的哈德，解釋了特朗普夫人爲什麼決心追究《每日郵報》的責任。

“[The Daily Mail’s apology] came several weeks after they had published their original article, knowing that it was going to be republished by lots of different publications,” he said. “There were hundreds and hundreds of publications that ended up reporting about this horrible lie that the Daily Mail had perpetuated. The damage had been done.”

“（每日郵報的道歉）在他們發表原文的幾周後才作出，明知道那篇報道會被許多不同的出版物轉載，”他表示，“最終有無數出版物報道了《每日郵報》炮製的這個可怕的謊言。損害已經造成。”

Despite its image as a staunchly conservative British newspaper that campaigned for Brexit, the Daily Mail’s website has aggressively targeted the US market in recent years. Mail Online has offices in Los Angeles and New York, with more than 250 staff in the US and this month launched its own TV show, which will be broadcast in 105 American markets.

儘管《每日郵報》的形象是一份堅守保守立場的英國報紙，曾積極倡導英國退歐，但該報網站近年激進地瞄準美國市場。“郵報在線”在洛杉磯和紐約設有辦事處，在全美有250多名員工，本月還推出自己的電視節目，將在美國各地105個市場播出。