We have been discussing the roll back on free speech rights in Germany and the recent controversy over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to first apologize to authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a satirical poem and then approve the prosecution of the comedian is a shocking and chilling disgrace. The crackdown on comedian Jan Boehmermann has shocked many the West. Despite the global condemnations of Merkel and her government in its yielding to Erdogan, there is at least one German judge who shows the same Merkelian disregard for free speech. A court in Hamburg banned Boehmermann from publicly reading his poem. Indeed, the court ruled that only six lines of the 24-line poem could be recited. It is an absurd case of prior restraint and a chilling example of how free speech is under attack in the West.
The case was sparked by Boehmermann’s recital of his “Defamatory Poem” on national television in March. That led to Erdogen’s demand for prosecution and Merkel’s yielding to the Turkish strongman. Now she has a willing German jurist to crush free speech. The Court ruled that “Erdogan does not have to put up with the expression of certain passages in view of their outrageous content attacking (his) honour.” Really, an authoritarian leader destroyed civil liberties in Turkey “does not have to put up” with the exercise of free speech in Germany.
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. We have seen comedians targeted with such court orders under this expanding and worrisome trend. (here and here).
Merkel has plunged Germany into this rising sea of censorship and criminalized speech. Fortunately, polls show Germans are opposed to her and this appeasement of Erdogan. However, she is a politician from East Germany who grew up under communist rule. This is someone who fashioned himself or herself as a jurist but cannot imagine why a budding dictator would have to “put up with” free speech.
Source: Yahoo
Thanks, BMW2009. I have been curious about what caused all the fuss. The American Leftist students on college campuses shout and scrawl much, much worse on a daily basis.
I continue to wonder what leverage is causing people like Merkel, the rest of the EU, and Obama to promote what I view as cultural suicide. They want to control speech and thought and to dilute the principles underlying Western civilization. By their fruit you will know them… I just wish we didn’t have to reap that fruit.
The ruling is based on a law from 1871 which is quite explicit. The judge could hardly have ruled otherwise.
I think that the shadow of WW2 still hangs over Germany. It still seems to be clouding the way they think. Just looks that way to me.
Karen
I don’t think the quality of the poem is relevant here?
The whole skit was written because of Erdogan’s protest against an earlier rather innocent bit of rhyme by someone else.
Mr B. recited this other bit first, enphasizing it was harmless and would never qualify as an insult, reflecting upon Erdogan’s over-sensitivity.
He continued by announcing the following poem would definitely be inadmissible in Germany and had his assistant quasi sternly stop people laughing halfway during the recital. And at the end repeated the warning he gave earlier.
So he made a very clever satirical statement -‘ha, that’s not an insult, but this next one most certainly would be’- and was very careful to frame and contextualize it properly.
All this vetted by the network, BTW.
The judge simply left all this out by looking at the text i.e. as if it were a fragment from a letter to the Turkish dictator.
This could have been thrown out of court on the grounds an honest process had become impossible after Merkel had openly assessed this was a prosecutable offence.
Aggravated by someone from Merkel’s party reading the poem in parliament -without the context mr. B. so carefully provided- to show why this was such an offence and why it had to be prosecuted.
A clear breach of separation of powers and IMO grounds for dismissal for any judge but an eager one.
I don’t know if Jan Boehmermann’s prose was any good, but I now have the overwhelming urge to record a reading of his poem, and stream it into all media channels in Turkey 24/7.
Desensitization through flooding.
Tod – do you have more than 2 links? I know the Word Mess filter will prevent any post with more than 2 hyperlinks.
Keep trying, because, as is always the case, repression just makes people want to read it more!
Fretting over merely words..WORDS, while planes fall from the sky. Orwell couldn’t have envisioned this insanity.
Reblogged this on Citizens, not serfs.
Hop on the bus Merkel:
The problem is all inside your head she said to me
The answer is easy if you take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
She said it’s really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won’t be lost or misconstrued
But I’ll repeat myself at the risk of being crude
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover
You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free
She said it grieves me so to see you in such pain
I wish there was something I could do to make you smile again
I said I appreciate that and would you please explain
About the fifty ways
She said why don’t we both just sleep on it tonight
And I believe in the morning you’ll begin to see the light
And then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover
You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free
Songwriters: SIMON, PAUL
—
It is time for Merkel to quit her job and hop on the bus for Amsterdam. There, she can be a hooker, not a looker for sure, and make herself free.
Well, I am for free speech as much as anyone, but if this translation is correct… it’s actually pretty embarrassing. I like to think of Germany has the top end of western civilization–for technology and culture–and this surely strikes hard against that. It’s middle-school humor at best, and I would think a lot of Germans may feel this does not represent them well, too. It’s basically said for effect–for ratings and notoriety (more like Madonna or Gaga…), and it’s distasteful presentation detracts from any real weight of the message. I thought we’re supposed to be better than that. Or maybe I’m just getting old.
I hate to stir up your nest Merkel but should Germans be barred from going to the Netherlands for Sinterklaas Day on December 5th?
Hop on the bus Gus.
Throw away the key Lee.
How will Merkel deal with “Zwarte Piet” issues this year? From wikipedia: EVERY year on December 5th and 6th, tens of thousands of Dutch people paint their faces black, don Renaissance-style jerkins and pantaloons, and assume the persona of Zwarte Piet (“Black Pete”). The comical character plays a vital part in the celebration of the feast day of St Nicholas, known as Sinterklaas, which overshadows Christmas as the most important children’s holiday. According to a custom standardised in the late 1800s, Sinterklaas arrives on a steamboat from Spain, accompanied by a team of his black-faced servants, who distribute presents and ginger biscuits to good children while threatening to scoop up naughty ones in a sack and carry them back to Spain to pick oranges.
Zwarte Piet is right next door in the Netherlands. Germans go there on Sinterklaas Day.
It hardly took a minute: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d1a_1460275183
Meanwhile, another Islamoterrorist airplane, EgyptAir, headed from Paris to Cairo, killed everyone aboard and the NWO is very happy about that. Why? follow the chain. It will lead to more abrogation of free speech and civil liberties, more Islamic migration and expansion, more Social Engineering, and more Leftism/right wing fascism to solidify the control of the NWO, and, of course, even more Islamoterrorism. The NWO is very fond of Islamoterrorism, and you’re a bigot and a racist if you aren’t for their agenda.
Little by little, Professor Turley, ever so slowly, begins to connect the dots, starting at the end results of the program: NWO leads to Leftism/Right Wing Fascism, then Pro-Islamoterrorism, then Social Engineering, then Gun Control, then Elimination of Free Speech and Civil Liberties. Getting to the root, the core — the NWO — always proves the most difficult for the average person because the average person is in denial that there are people in power that are so vile and depraved that they will stop at nothing to achieve their objectives.
Reblogged this on Dave Alexander & Company with Ukuleledave and David Edgren — This is the original Artisan Craft Blog and commented:
This can, and might happen here. America should learn from this. I reserve the right to offend Erdogan, Merkel and anyone else. If I can find the English version, and a Turkish version, I’d be happy to publish it. Erdogan: Deal with it!
And I’ve and tired to post the damn thing. I even included the poem.
Well, my comment did not post!
Did the whole world elect the same type of dunderheads at the same time?
I would like to see an English version of the whatever the guy said over in Deutschland. Can it not be repeated here in America? Is there some violation of some civility rule?
Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles….