The Justice Minister of Germany, Heiko Maas, announced on Wednesday that the Government is all set to scrap the long standing law that prohibits people to insult foreign leaders. According to him the law was “outdated and unnecessary”.
The law, which is usually referred to as “lèse-majesté” – the french term for “injured majesty” was actually used to protect monarchs during the last monarchic period of Germany which ended with World War I. The law is seldom used as the people of Germany insult foreign heads of states all the time , just like anybody else.
The law was most recently used by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to prosecute a German satirist Jan Boehmermann who read a poem on live television accusing Erdogan of having sex with goats, his love for repressing minorities, kicking Kurds and beating Christians while watching child porn.
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Angela Merkel took the law’s side in this case and authorized criminal proceedings against Jan Boehmermann . Her spokesperson later released a statement explaining that “satire takes place within our country’s press and media freedom, which as you know is not unlimited.”