• German court bans sections of poem mocking Turkish president Erdogan
    73 replies, posted
isn't the context of the insulting poem related to the law about insulting foreign heads if state? like, it is only because it was discovered that law was still on the books that this guy decided to write this poem to be specifically insulting? to me, that is enough context for it to not be slander or defamy. its a joke routine, he isn't stating that erdogan is a pedophile sheepfucker with intent to get people to believe he is actually a pedophile sheepfucker.
[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;50364898]isn't the context of the insulting poem related to the law about insulting foreign heads if state? like, it is only because it was discovered that law was still on the books that this guy decided to write this poem to be specifically insulting? to me, that is enough context for it to not be slander or defamy. its a joke routine, he isn't stating that erdogan is a pedophile sheepfucker with intent to get people to believe he is actually a pedophile sheepfucker.[/QUOTE] No, if I remember correctly the context is (mostly) irrelevant regarding either defamation/insult law. It's actually really easy to sidestep any borders on legal speech in Germany though (minus the holocaust denial one), and he very clearly chose to intentionally overstep those bounds. I don't think he knew about the law about insulting foreign officials. In the routine, he only announces that he's going to break the general law that forbids 'Schmähkritik' by intentionally insulting and smearing him. This was in response to Erdogan complaining about and Merkel apologising for a perfectly legal satire of the former in a different programme. That law he mentioned doesn't discriminate regarding who is involved, and has a much lower maximum sentence. [editline]23rd May 2016[/editline] In any case, I trust the courts to handle this appropriately. It's entirely possible they'll settle on a very mild sentence or throw this out. As others have mentioned, the justice system in Germany is very unpolitical. Anyone even [I]trying[/I] to inject politics there would cause a huge scandal if found out.
[QUOTE=uber.;50349978]No, I'm saying Fox News cause you make weird connections. Why should Merkel be able to influence what the Hamburger court decides? There was a decision by Merkel herself a few weeks ago, if that's what you mean that I would actually agree. But I find the idea that Merkel can influence a local court to be ridiculous. Do you think that holocaust denial also falls under free speech?[/QUOTE] Personally I do, they are wrong and everyone knows it... But they should have freedom of speech to voice their opinions, because people will react in their own right way (not inferring violence here)
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