Zitat

---

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Friday granted a Turkish request to allow the possible prosecution of a German TV comedian who wrote a crude poem about Turkey's president, an awkward decision for Chancellor Angela Merkel as she seeks Ankara's help in reducing Europe's migrant influx.

Turkey demanded last week to have comedian Jan Boehmermann prosecuted for insulting a foreign head of state. German law required Merkel's government to grant permission before prosecutors could consider whether to press charges.

Merkel stressed that it "means neither a prejudgment of the person affected nor a decision about the limits of freedom of art, the press and opinion." She underlined the independence of the judiciary and the presumption of innocence.

She said her government had also decided that Germany's law criminalizing insults of a foreign head of state is "dispensable in the future" and intends to repeal it, effective in 2018.

Merkel also expressed "great concern" about the state of media freedom and the fate of individual journalists in Turkey, as well as restrictions on the right to demonstrate, as she made her announcement in Berlin.

Boehmermann read the poem on ZDF television two weeks ago to illustrate what he said wouldn't be allowed in Germany, contrasting it with another channel's earlier satirical song that also poked fun at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and angered Turkey.

ZDF withdrew the passage with the poem from its archives but argues that it didn't break the law. Boehmermann's ditty started by describing the Turkish leader as "stupid, cowardly and uptight" before descending into crude sexual references.

---

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/germ...ocid=spartanntp

So Merkel is concerned about freedom of the press in Turkey. Perhaps she should show the same concern for freedom of speech in Deutschland.