{"id":281151,"date":"2017-01-25T09:34:11","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T14:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=281151"},"modified":"2020-10-28T09:38:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T13:38:13","slug":"obsolete-unnecessary-germany-to-scrap-law-restricting-insults-against-foreign-heads-of-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/obsolete-unnecessary-germany-to-scrap-law-restricting-insults-against-foreign-heads-of-state\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Obsolete & unnecessary\u2019: Germany to scrap law restricting insults against foreign heads of state"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Wonderful!<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Germany is to get rid of the l\u00e8se-majest\u00e9 law protecting heads of state or government from being publicly offended. The decision came after last spring the law was evoked by Turkish President Erdogan who tried to sue a German comedian for a satirical poem he found too insulting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of \u2018injured majesty\u2019 comes from a long-gone epoch and it doesn\u2019t fit in our criminal code anymore,\u201d Justice Minister Heiko Maas said, adding that the \u201cregulation is obsolete and unnecessary,\u201d as cited by the Justice ministry website.<\/p>\n

Insults against head of states will still be punishable, but\u00a0\u201cnot more or less than that of any other person,\u201d\u00a0Maas also said.<\/p>\n

Previously, the main difference between the laws dealing with defamation cases involving political leaders and ordinary people was the extent of the sentence. A person charged with insulting a head of state faced up to three years in prison, while insulting an ordinary person could cost an offender no more than one year in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, in order to protect the organs and representatives of foreign states there is no need to increase the measure of punishment\u2026 International law does not oblige [Germany] to establish special penal norms in favor of representatives of foreign states, as stipulated\u2026 in the Criminal Code. The idea that the representatives of foreign states needed a stronger protection of honor is therefore unnecessary and can be canceled,\u201d\u00a0says a proposed reform to the currently existing law,\u00a0published\u00a0on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The law is planned to be abolished by January 1, 2018, but the decision is yet to be approved by the German Parliament.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged German authorities to launch an investigation into prominent comedian Jan B\u00f6hmermann. On March 31, 2016, he performed an insulting poem about Erdogan on a late-night TV comedy show he hosted. According to the \u201csatirical\u201d poem, the Turkish president had engaged in bestiality and was a child abuser.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who described the poem as\u00a0\u201cdefamatory,\u201d\u00a0satisfied Erdogan’s request despite public criticism. Dozens of people, including pro-Kurdish activists and members of Germany\u2019s Pirate Party, took to Berlin streets in April showing their discontent over Merkel\u2019s failure to stand up for free speech.<\/p>\n

The case heard by a court in the city of Mainz, nevertheless, was dropped in October due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/375086-germany-to-scrap-laws-insults\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: Wonderful!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":281153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/da\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}