News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch was secretly recorded playing down the significance of wrongdoing at his U.K. newspapers, remarks that sharply contrast with his public contrition over the papers' alleged use of illegal reporting tactics, and criticizing a police investigation as 'totally incompetent.'

新闻集团(News Corp)董事长默多克(Rupert Murdoch)在淡化该集团英国报业部门不法行为的影响及批评警方调查毫无进展时被人秘密录音。这番话与他就其报纸涉嫌使用非法报道手段公开表明的悔意形成鲜明对比。

Britain's Channel 4 News and the journalism website Exaro News posted excerpts of the recording online, saying it was made in March during a meeting with journalists at The Sun tabloid, some of whom had been arrested by police probing allegations of the media bribing public officials for information. Since 2011 police also have been investigating the illegal interception of voice-mail messages and emails by journalists seeking information. Dozens of News Corp journalists have been arrested in the probes and some charged with crimes, including alleged phone-hacking and 'conspiring to commit misconduct in public office' by allegedly paying officials for information.

英国电视台Channel 4 News和新闻网站Exaro News在网上公布了部分录音内容，说这是今年3月默多克与《太阳报》(The Sun)新闻工作人员开会时被录下来的，其中部分人员曾被警方逮捕过，接受有关该报涉嫌贿赂公职人员以获取信息的调查。另外，警方自2011年以来一直在调查新闻工作人员为获取信息涉嫌非法截获语音信箱留言和电子邮件一事。新闻集团有几十名新闻工作者因这些调查被捕，还有人受到刑事指控，如涉嫌电话窃听，涉嫌为获取信息贿赂政府官员从而串谋构成公职人员行为不当罪。

On the recording, Mr. Murdoch is heard saying of the police investigation: 'I mean, it's a disgrace. Here we are two years later and the cops are totally incompetent.' He later adds: 'It's the biggest inquiry ever, over next to nothing.'

从录音资料上可以听到，默多克在谈到警方调查时说：我的意思是，这是件很丢脸的事，现在两年过去了，警方完全无能为力。他后来还说：这是迄今为止规模最大的调查，以前从没有过。

At one point, Mr. Murdoch also says: 'I don't know of anybody, or anything, that did anything that wasn't being done across Fleet Street and wasn't the culture. And we're being picked on.'

默多克还一度讲道：我不知道有任何人做的任何事不是英国新闻界以前做过的事，风气就是这样，而偏偏我们被揪住不放。

In public appearances before a parliamentary committee and a judge-led inquiry probing the scandal in recent years, Mr. Murdoch has apologized profusely for any wrongdoing at his papers.

近年来在调查该丑闻的英国议会委员会和一个由法官领导的调查组跟前公开露面时，默多克都对其报业的任何违法行为表示了深深的歉意。

'Invading people's privacy by listening to their voice mail is wrong. Paying police officers for information is wrong,' he told the parliamentary committee in July 2011. 'This is why News International is cooperating fully with the police, whose job it is to see that justice is done.'

2011年7月他对英国议会委员会说，听他人语音信箱侵犯其隐私的做法是错误的，贿赂警察获取信息的做法是错误的，这也是为什么新闻集团正全力配合警方，他们的职责是伸张正义。

On the recording of the March meeting, Mr. Murdoch appears to take a different tone. 'We're talking about payments for news tips from cops. That's been going on a hundred years, absolutely. You didn't instigate it.'

录音资料显示，默多克在今年3月的会议上似乎变了口气。他说：我们现在谈的是付钱给警察，从他们那里获得新闻线索，这种做法绝对已有百年历史，你们不是始作俑者。

A News Corp spokeswoman declined to make Mr. Murdoch available to comment Thursday. In an emailed statement, the company said: 'No other company has done as much to identify what went wrong, compensate the victims, and ensure the same mistakes do not happen again.' The statement adds: 'Rupert Murdoch has shown understandable empathy with the staff and families affected and will assume they are innocent until and unless proven guilty.'

新闻集团发言人拒绝由默多克本人周四发表评论。该公司在一份通过电子邮件发表的声明中说，没有任何一家公司在承认错误、赔偿受害人以及保证不再犯同样错误方面付出这么多努力。声明还说，默多克对有关员工和家庭表示同情，这无可厚非，而且他会认为他们是清白无辜的，除非被证明有罪。

News Corp added: 'Mr. Murdoch never knew of payments made by Sun staff to police before News Corporation disclosed that to U.K. authorities. Furthermore, he never said he knew of payments. It's absolutely false to suggest otherwise.'

新闻集团还说：新闻集团对英国当局披露《太阳报》员工向警方付钱一事之前，默多克对此一无所知，而且他从未说过自己知道付钱一事，任何暗示事情并非如此的说法都毫不属实。

News Corp also owns The Wall Street Journal.

《华尔街日报》隶属于新闻集团。

The satirical magazine Private Eye first reported the existence of the recording in June.

讽刺杂志《私家侦探》(Private Eye)今年6月首先报道了默多克讲话被录音一事。

On the tape, Mr. Murdoch also appears to apologize for his initial reaction to the scandal in the summer of 2011, which included closing the company's News of the World tabloid.

录音资料显示，默多克似乎还为2011年夏天自己就窃听丑闻最初的反应道歉。关闭新闻集团旗下《世界新闻报》(News of the World)是他当时采取的措施之一。

'We were working in the belief─I think rightly─the police were about to invade this building and take all the computers out the way, and just put us out of business totally,' he says. 'If you want to accuse me of a certain amount of panic, there's some truth in that,' he says. 'But it was…I was under personal siege…all the press were screaming and yelling, and we might have gone too far in protecting ourselves, and you were the victims.'

默多克说，我们当时的思路──我现在也觉得这个思路是对的──是以为警察会马上登门，没收所有的电脑，迫使我们全面停业。他说，如果你们想指责我过于恐慌，也不无道理，但实际上……我个人受到围攻……所有媒体都在尖叫、在叫喊，我们或许在自我保护方面做得太过了，你们是牺牲品。

Asked by one journalist why News Corp handed so much evidence connected to Sun reporters to police, who initially were focused on investigating News of the World practices, Mr. Murdoch called it a 'mistake.'

在被一位新闻工作者问到新闻集团为何交给警方如此多的有关《太阳报》记者的证据时，默多克说，这是个错误。警方最初关注的是对《世界新闻报》报道实践的调查。

'But, in that atmosphere, at that time, we said, 'Look, we are an open book, we will show you everything.' And the lawyers just got rich going through millions of emails.'

默多克说，但那时在那种情况下，我们的意思是：看，我们毫无隐瞒，全盘托出；而且因为看了数百万封电子邮件，律师们发财了。