We previously discussed the case of Deutschland-Kurier editor David Bendels who published a satirical meme of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser holding an altered sign that read “I hate freedom of speech.” Ironically, the sign was believable given the anti-free speech positions of Faeser and the German government. Faeser, however, went ballistic. In a country that routinely arrests people for their views, the matter was immediately turned into a criminal investigation. In a decision that could easily have been rendered in China or Iran, a Bamberg district court in Bavaria sentenced Deutschland-Kurier editor David Bendels to seven months in prison on probation and a fine of nearly sixty percent of his annual income. It is only the latest evidence of the free fall of free speech in Germany.
Faeser recently tried and failed to shut down a right-wing publication.
Conservative journalist David Bendels, editor-in-chief of the AfD-aligned DeutschlandKurier, lampooned Faeser by showing a meme of her holding a sign reading, “I hate free speech.” Deutschland-Kurier is aligned with the opposition conservative AfD party.
As if to prove her point, Faeser allegedly unleashed her office on Bendels and threatened him with a criminal prosecution for lampooning her views. The court has already imposed a fine, but according to some reports, jail time is possible.
I recently returned from speaking at the World Forum in Berlin on free speech. As I previously noted, it was an appropriate location for a gathering of some of the most anti-free speech figures in the European Union and America. Billed as working toward a “New World Order with European Values,” the most prominent value was the global effort to criminalize and regulate speech.
Bendels was convicted in November, and the ruling has now confirmed that he had committed “defamation directed against people in political life,” as reported by Die Welt. It is believed to be the first time a journalist has been charged under the statute. Both the sentence and the fine are well above the average for non-violent crimes in Germany.
Americans should not dismiss the Bendels case as some foreign matter with little relevance to their lives. The EU has moved aggressively to extend its anti-free speech and censorship policies globally, including a grotesque $1 billion fine against X for restoring free speech protections on that site. Germany is the epicenter of the anti-free speech movement, and figures like Faeser are among its champions.
Germany, France, the United Kingdom and other countries have eviscerated free speech by criminalizing speech deemed inciteful or degrading to individuals or groups. The result had made little difference to the neo-Nazi movement in countries like Germany, which is reaching record numbers. It has, however, silenced the rest of society.
According to polling, only 18 percent of Germans feel free to express their opinions in public. Fifty-nine percent of Germans do not even feel free expressing themselves in private among friends. Only 17 percent feel free to express themselves on the internet.
They have silenced the wrong people, but there is now a massive censorship bureaucracy in Europe and the desire to silence opposing voices has become insatiable.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Faeser needs to get over herself.
Fascism is back!
right! and this guy is the face of it, of hate, hatemonger!
When Germany starts trumpeting a ‘New World Order’ one cannot but think: Oh, God, not again. But that European nations such as England and France are in on it … oy. The only way, as I see it, to conduct the life of nations and peoples is through wide public discussion and consideration in a process that – as 1787’s Founders intended – SHOULD take time and much public discussion and go through the proper political deliberative and voting process. The idea of sudden and massive ‘transformation’ (thank you, Obama) is precisely not the way to manage nations and citizenries. Thus it has to be of concern that the Dems – one thinks of Hillary bleating about America needing to take its cues in all this from the Europeans – are indeed trying to do the same thing over here. Why so much illegal immigration? Because the Dems realized that they were never going to get massive electoral majorities and needed a fresh and huge infusion of future Dem-indentured voters to overcome the fact that a solid half if not more of Americans do not at all trust the Dem transformation agenda.
GY has never trumpeted the “NWO”. Never, ever …
WTF does NWO and 1787 have to do with Nancy Fraser?
I served in West Germany three years during 1971-1974. I lived in a rural community. My landlord was a Panzer driver in WWII. His Panzer was blown up and he was crippled. His wife “buried” a baby daughter in early 1945, in a snowbank, due to starvation. He despised Nazis, was grateful for NATO, and the US in particular. He lived for the day of the month I received my ration card for booze. He was partial to Seagrams whiskey sours. His wife had to retrieve him from my place on those nights. The following month, repeat. He died while I was there. I still miss him and his Frau. He was proud and would have done anything to preserve the rights Germans gained, at least in the west, post war. Most important of the rights, to him, was free speech. He viewed it as the most critical to avoiding the descent to the hell of anarchy and world war. Knowing him was living proof of the significance of his belief. He would not have believed it if he were told that, over 50 years later, this would be happening to his country.
The Europeans are not our friends. Maybe the friends of the censuring China-inspired leftists in this country, but certainly not mine. They spend more money in Russian oil than Ukrainian defense. Let them take care of their own problems and the wars they have fought amongst themselves since the time of the Greeks. JD is completely right. I take Orban, Le Pen and Meloni an day over the Western-hating, suicidal left in Europe. Keep importing the immigrants who hate your guts. It won’t end well.
Not our friends… very correct, they are the USAs enemies. Should be treated as such.