This sounds like a belated April Fool's joke, but it's not. In Germany it's
apparently a crime to offend a foreign politician.
Germany
Investigating Comic Suspected of Offending Turkish President Erdogan
(Wall Street Journal) - German prosecutors have opened an investigation
against a television comedian on suspicion of offending Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, escalating a dispute over press freedom that comes
as Germany relies increasingly on Turkey to solve Europe's migrant crisis.
The prosecutor's office in the city of Mainz is launching proceedings on
suspicion that prominent German comedy host Jan Böhmermann breached
a law that prohibits offending foreign heads of state or members of government,
senior public prosecutor Andrea Keller said.
Under paragraph 103 of the German criminal code, offending a foreign head
of state can be punishable by up to three years in prison.
The legal probe comes two days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized
Mr. Böhmermann's satirical poem, which made crude sexual jokes about
Mr. Erdogan. It also follows a weekslong spat over German media criticism
of Mr. Erdogan and Turkish reaction to it.
Ms. Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the chancellor and Turkish
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu agreed in a phone call on Sunday evening that
the text of the poem that aired on public broadcaster ZDF last Friday was "deliberately
offensive," voicing a rare official media criticism in a country that strongly
advocates freedom of the press.
The criticism from Ms. Merkel highlighted the sensitivity of German-Turkish
relations at a time when Germany needs Turkey to stop the flow of migration
from the Middle East—a position that has drawn fire from critics in
Germany who claim Ms. Merkel has as a result turned a blind eye to rights
abuses in Turkey.
Mr. Böhmermann's poem was the second media item to cause a stir in
recent weeks.
Last month, the Turkish government summoned Germany's ambassador to Ankara
after another German comedy show aired a song mocking Mr. Erdogan for, among
other things, trying to muzzle journalists. German officials say the government
has made clear to the Turkish government the high importance it places in
press freedom.
The Mainz prosecutor on Wednesday said the office had received some 20 complaints
from "private individuals" about Mr. Böhmermann's poem, automatically
triggering the opening of preliminary proceedings.
So Germany is "a country that strongly advocates freedom of the press," but
will imprison you for three years if you say mean things about a foreign dictator.
Americans tend to think the 1st Amendment is just the way things work, but
that's obviously not the case. In much of Europe people are regularly arrested
for, among other things, insulting
a religion. For a longer treatment of this subject, see the Legal Project's European
Hate Speech Laws.
Some related thoughts:
Chris Rock and John Stewart should be glad they live here, since apparently
in most other countries they'd be entertaining their cell-mates in a super-max
prison. And let's not even think about the possible fate of Andres Serrano
and his "Piss Christ."
The self-confidence of a society can be measured by its tolerance for dissent.
Viewed that way, the 1989 US Supreme Court decision defining flag-burning as
protected speech was a sign of a culture that's not afraid of a little self-examination.
Good for us.
But the battle is ongoing, and lately our cultural self-confidence seems to
be going the way of Europe's. See The Atlantic's recent Glaring
Evidence That Free Speech Is Threatened on Campus.
Meanwhile here and abroad, restrictions on honestly (if crudely) expressed
opinion are boosting support for sharp-tounged politicians like Donald Trump,
Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage who display a willingness to offend. In the
political marketplace, as in any other, unfilled needs are quickly met by creative
entrepreneurs. So in the long run, extreme PC may be self defeating.
Why bother with this subject in a finance blog? Because capital markets, more
than perhaps any other part of the modern world, depend on confidence. If we're
too timid to exchange ideas and opinions, then we're unlikely to be comfortable
with long-term investment in factories and growth stocks. So restrictions on
speech equal "risk off" in financial markets. All trends these days seem to
point towards gold and away from equities and government bonds.
Finally, in honor of what's left of free speech, here are Liam
Neeson threatening Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama's press
conference with China's premier.
