Wednesday, May 18, 2016

GERMAN COURT BANS ANTI ERDOGAN SATIRE

German comedian Jan Böhmermann faces 3 years in prison for insulting Turkish President Erdogan. The Turks have now broadened their attack on Liberty to the Netherlands by prosecuting a critical columnist. Erdogan is now seeking an injunction against a German media executive.

UPDATE: A court in the German city of Hamburg on Tuesday banned the author of a poem lampooning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from publicly reciting passages from his work. The court ruled that only six lines of the 24-line poem by German comedian Jan Boehmermann could be recited, offering the Turkish leader a partial legal victory. The poem accused Erdogan of bestiality and paedophilia and has caused a storm in Germany over freedom of speech. Chancellor Angela Merkel has come in for criticism after she authorised possible criminal proceedings against Boehmermann. Any prosecution of the comedian would be launched under the rarely enforced section 103 of Germany’s criminal code — insulting organs or representatives of foreign states — which carries up to three years in prison




May 11, 2016

GEERT WILDERS: "LET'S DUMP TURKEY"


Look at every country where Islam is dominant and you will see a total lack of freedom and democracy. Islam and freedom are absolutely incompatible. And yet, we are importing it into our western societies, thereby endangering our own freedoms. It is time to stop this foolishness. Take Turkey, for example. Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has never made a secret of his aim to strengthen the powers of Islam. Contrary to what some want us to believe, Turkey does not prove that Islam and democracy are compatible. For Erdogan, democracy is merely a tool. He once compared it to a tram: “You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off.” Today, Mr Erdogan is stepping off.




May 10, 2016

ERDOGAN CENSORING OF EUROPEANS CONTINUES


Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is seeking a preliminary injunction against German publisher Axel Springer’s chief executive Mathias Doepfner, German media cited Erdogan’s lawyer as saying on Monday. German media cited Ralf Hoecker, a lawyer for Erdogan, as saying the Turkish leader wanted the injunction due to Doepfner’s support for a poem read out by comedian Jan Boehmermann on German national television in March. In the poem Boehmermann suggested Erdogan hits girls, watches child pornography and engages in bestiality. In an open letter published in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in April, Doepfner expressed solidarity with Boehmermann, saying he had laughed out loud over the poem and “wholeheartedly” supported what the comedian had said. (More) 
The court has already rejected Erdogan's request. The fundamentalist eurocrat, Guy Verhofstadt meanwhile has the right reaction: he's calling all EU citizens to offend Erdogan.

April 26, 2016

EU IS HEADING FOR SHOWDOWN WITH TURKEY


The Dutch PM has been accused of letting the Turkish leverage over the migrant crisis hamper his handling of the Ebru Umar case. Last night he reacted fiercely, saying that his Government would be "rotten to the core" if he let that stand in his way of defending the freedom of speech. The Turks are keen for the travel restrictions in the EU to be lifted as part of deal with the EU over the migrant crisis. But in order to come into effect this summer Turkey has to comply with an sheer impossible list of demands, like respecting the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression. This matter is bound to lead to a showdown: Erdogan is turning Turkey in an Islamic dictatorship, while these liberties are the prime basic values of the European Union. Something will have to give and it looks like Dutch Turkish socialite Ebru Umar is becoming the symbol of this high noon. Umar in the meantime has posted on Metro that she's been giving 7 days to exit the country. She writes: "Everyone knows that within these 7 days I'll be charged with something else".





Ebru Umar is becoming the cause célèbre symbolising the showdown with Turkey.

April 25, 2016

DUTCH TURKISH SPATS OVER 'INSULTS' CONTINUE
The Turkish authorities have launched some 2,000 lawsuits against people accused of insulting Erdogan.

The Turkish police have detained a Dutch columnist over a critical tweet she posted about Turkish President Recep Erdogan, her newspaper said. The woman intends to go back to the Netherlands after being released. Ebru Umar is a Dutch columnist of Turkish origin, who writes for several newspapers, including Metro. On Saturday, the Turkish police detained her at the resort of Kusadasi and seized her laptop, the newspaper reported. (Source) Update: Umar (hashtag: #FreeEbru) also stands accused of blasphemy. The trial could take upto a year if no diplomatic solution can be found. 




DUTCH TURKISH SPATS OVER 'INSULTS' CONTINUE


Over the weekend the Turkish Dutch columnist Ebru Umar -- who is critical of the Erdogan regime -- was arrested and thrown in a jail in Izmit, Turkey. She was released, but charged with the crime of insulting Erdogan, Turkey and Turkishness. The Dutch PM has spoken with the Turkish PM about the question. It comes on the heals of a series of diplomatic spats in Germany and the Netherlands involving the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech. Merkel has thrown the rights of the German people under the bus, but the Dutch are still defending Liberty. This morning Umar was alerted by a neighbor that her house in Amsterdam was broken into. The Turkish regime wields extensive power outside Turkey with Turks holding dual nationality still very loyal to the Turkish fatherland. A center right mainstream newspaper today published a defiant 'special' on Umar's detention. A cartoon above. Umar used to post articles on Theo van Gogh's website www.degezonderoker.nl before the contentious film maker was slaughtered by an islamist.


April 22, 2016

TURKS BROADEN ATTACK ON LIBERTY TO NETHERLANDS


An adviser of Erdogan is assisting Dutch Turks to file criminal complaints against Dutch comedian Hans Teeuwen. The satirist is one of last bullworks against political correctness. More about him in Dutch Comedian: "Free Speech Has Been Lost". The Turkish lawyer in Rotterdam says that Teeuwen may be prosecuted for offending Erdogan and may be jailed for upto 4 months. Teeuwen said last week in an interview that the Turkish President "owes him a blowjob". (Source)
Turkish consulate in The Netherlands urges Dutch Turks to report insults to Erdogan. (DutchNews). The Turkish consulate in Rotterdam has urged Turkish nationals to report examples of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan being insulted and denigrating comments made about Turks in general, Dutch media said on Thursday afternoon. Various Turkish organisations in the Netherlands have been emailed by the consulate, urging them to make a note of the insults.

 The call comes a day after the Dutch government said it would scrap legislation which makes insulting a friendly head of state a criminal offence. The consulate is looking for social media posts which incite hatred or contain insulting comments as well as email and traditional letters, Dutch Turkish news site Zaman Vandaag says. The consulate was not available for comment but a spokesman for the Turkish embassy in The Hague told RTL news that a hate campaign had been launched against Turkey since it emerged that a German comedian faces prosecution for insulting Erdogan. ‘We want to monitor the situation,’ the embassy said. (Source)


April 20, 2016

OFFEND ERDOGAN COMPETITION LAUNCHED IN UK


A UK-based magazine has offered a prize to the author of the most offensive poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is suing a German comedian over a satirical verse. The Spectator is offering £1,000, donated by a reader. Merkel may well go into history as the postmodern Quisling who sold out the basic rights of her people to a Turkish potentate and his troll army. Check out the Armenian anti Turkish site http://www.gagrule.net/ 












April 15, 2016

MERKEL CAPITULATES, SURRENDERS FREEDOM OF SPEECH




Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed to a request from Turkey to seek prosecution of a German comedian.Turkish officials made a request last week to prosecute Mr Boehmermann for insulting a foreign head of state, a request that posed a difficult choice for Germany when it is relying on Turkey to reduce the flow of migrants into Europe. Under an obscure German law, prosecutions for insults against foreign leaders need both a complaint from the offended party and permission from the government. After a day of deliberation, Ms Merkel confirmed Germany would give permission for prosecutors to take the case forward, if they wished. Ms Merkel said there had been differing opinions between the country's coalition partners but added: "The outcome is that the German government will give the authorisation in the current case." She said that this was "neither a prejudgment" nor "a decision about the limits of freedom of art. the press and opinion". The German government intends to repeal the law on insulting a head of state, effective in 2018, she added.

April 14, 2016

EDITORS GERMAN TV CHANNEL CHALLENGE ERDOGAN



Editors of the second German state TV channel are demanding that the skit that offended Erdogan is posted back online as a 'historical document'. The editors have circulated a memo in the internal mailing system of the Mainz based broadcaster, further stating that the editors also want other offensive material back online, of the news show Heute, Anstalt and the satirical research program Tol in which politicians are habitually lampooned. If a program is disturbing to a head of state, the program has justified its existence, the memo states.




April 12, 2016

GERMAN COMEDIAN TESTING MERKEL LEGITIMACY


Jan Böhmermann faces three years in prison for insulting Turkish President Erdogan on the weekly satirical TV show, Neo Magazin Royale. Before reciting his satirical poem on March 31, Böhmermann called it an example of speech that Germany would not permit. He was right. It could be a violation of section 103 of the criminal code: insulting organs or representatives of foreign states. Prosecutors in the western city of Mainz plan to consult the federal Justice Ministry on whether to launch criminal proceedings in the name of the Turkish state or President Erdogan himself. 

Many European states fail to understand that freedoms -- like pregnancy -- are absolute. Either you have it, or you don't. The freedom of speech in the American Constitution isn't the First Amendment by chance. The freedom of investigation, criticize and comment is so fundamental to Western Enlightenment, that science would not even be possible without it. Revolutions have been fought over this issue. With the Church, but also with feudalists who sought to elevate nobility and kings above critique.

A Government's first duty is the security of its citizens. It's second duty is the protection of the fundamental rights of citizens. Today's Western Governments are doing neither. On the contrary. This means that they have lost the moral justification to govern. This gives the governed the right to choose new Governments that will do their duties. Developments like these are bad enough and the stuff that causes revolutions. But it gets even more sinister than dereliction of duty. It's treasonous. 

Maj. Stephen Coughlin is one of the US's most astute and objective analysts and an expert in the connections between Islamic law, terrorism and the Jihadist movement around the globe. As Coughlin is explaining in this video, our leaders are basically enforcing UN Resolution 16/18, or the 10 year program that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has set out. Coughlin's insights are throwing new light on a number of current issues, such as:
  • Western Governments' suppression of free speech and why they are going after their own citizens (e.g. Elizabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff in Austria (source) and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, now even for the second time (source). 
  • Why being 'offended' has become legitimate ground to suppress the freedom of speech (which is helped in a serious way by the postmodern notion held by Social Justice Warrriors that "words are weapons").
  • Why Islamic and secular Governments define terrorism very differently.
Hillary Clinton has made clear, that if legislation stops short, Western leaders will use the pressure of political correctness to suppress the defamation of Islam and Muslim leaders. (More) As it is, Germany happens to have the required legislation on the books. Under the German criminal code it is an offence to insult “organs or representatives of foreign states”. 

On 31 March during his weekly show Neo Magazin Royale, Boehmermann read a poem in which he said that Erdogan "represses minorities, kicks the Kurds and beats the Christians". In his poem, he also said that Erdogan liked to have sex with goats and sheep, watched child pornography and "beats young girls while wearing a rubber mask".

The broadcast followed a recent controversy over a satirical song, "Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan", aired on 17 March on NDR, another public TV station, not connected to Boehmermann. The song said Erdogan lived in a "showy palace", spoke of his “brothers in faith from Isis”, and said that he “jails journalists for writing things he doesn’t like”. (Watch)

The Turkish government summoned the German ambassador to Ankara and asked the video of the song to be deleted from NDR’s website and social media channels. 

On Friday, the day after the show, ZDF's director of programmes Norbert Himmler said the "limits to irony and satire were clearly exceeded" and had the video of the poem removed from ZDF's website.

On Sunday Merkel spoke on the phone with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and publicly criticised the poem. Merkel's spokesman on Monday said both leaders had agreed the poem was a "deliberately abusive text". However, government sources said Merkel's call had cooled the Turks down, according to Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel.

During the controversy over the "Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan" song, a foreign affairs ministry spokeswoman said that for Germany “the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and protection of basic rights, which include freedom of the press and freedom of expression are values that must be protected”.

Merkel's remark over the poem and the prosecutor's investigation supports the song's claim that Erdogan should not be criticised because of his importance to Europe, and especially Germany, in the refugee crisis.

The Turkish government seized an opposition newspaper, Zaman, in early March, and has jailed scores of critical journalists. Reacting to the Zaman crackdown, German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said Germany “should not be the referee on human rights for the entire planet”.

Faced with the backlash, Boehmermann said that he was trying to define the line between humour and defamation. He said he has "spectacularly shown, jointly with ZDF, where the limits of satire lie by us in Germany. At last!" 




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