At some point in 2016, a German satirist delivered a poem (not likely the type that you'd utter at recitals or fancy dress balls).....which tossed negative criticism upon Erdogan of Turkey.
Erdgoan got a bit peeved over the insults....had a chat with German lawyers, and found paragraph 103. It's a law that Germany put into effect after WW I, and was standardized after WW II to fit within the new Constitution. Paragraph 103 says that you can generally make fun of anyone (any German, any French guy, any American, or even religious leaders) BUT you can't make fun of any national leader outside of Germany. So you could ridicule Merkel and dozens of SPD members, and chat in a negative way over Bill Gates. But you could not go and write witty and critical comments over Erdogan for example (or Reagan, Thatcher, Putin, etc).
Once this German satirist got dragged into court....everyone got pepped up. It wasn't right.....at least as the public saw it.
For weeks and weeks....there's been an effort to delete paragraph 103. Yesterday, they passed the deletion. You can insult or make humor-filled wit on any world leader now.
So, naturally, you might stand there and ask.....how did this start up to be existing a hundred years ago? Well....Germans had satirists and journalists who wrote some pointed comments over Russian, French, and English leaders. This stirred up the public, and in some ways pumped up the public to be aggravated. A chance that they will repeat this episode in 2017, or in the future? Yes.
It's a funny republic. They hate hate-speech......to the point of a 50-million Euro fine if something remains on Facebook longer than 1441 minutes. They love satire and sharp wit on individuals...to the degree of helping promote a negative future relationship. It''s hard to figure where this will end up in the end.
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