Stephen Lendman

Free expression in all forms is the most important democratic right, no matter how offensive to some people. Without it, all other freedoms are jeopardized.

Articles 1 through 19 of Germany’s constitution affirm basic rights afforded all Germans.

They include equality for all citizens, freedom of speech, assembly, the media, and religion. Discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or political beliefs is prohibited.

Conscientious objection to compulsory military service is allowed. Article 18 states:

“Whoever abuses freedom of expression of opinion, in particular freedom of the press, freedom of teaching, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, privacy of posts and telecommunications, property, or the right of asylum in order to combat the free democratic basic order, shall forfeit these basic rights.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel initiated war on free expression, flagrantly violating constitutional law.

She authorized TV host Jan Bohmermann’s prosecution for reading a satirical poem on ZDF television criticizing Turkish despot Erdogan, a notorious world-class thug.

During a Friday rally supporting Bohmermann, Germany’s Pirate Party Berlin head, Bruno Kramm, was arrested for quoting a line from his poem - the nation’s latest flagrant constitutional violation.

Police accused Kramm of violating a long ago outdated 19th century statute, prohibiting insults against “organs and representatives of foreign states.”

He’s held in isolation, no visitors allowed, his arrest and detention much like what goes on routinely in Turkey, police state practices in both countries, increasingly happening in Britain, France, elsewhere in Europe and America.

In a statement posted on the Pirate Party’s web site, Kramm said “(w)hen people slightly criticize the government in Turkey, they are persecuted, beaten or disappear.”

“(T)he dictator Erdogan is allowed to significantly restrict the right of assembly and the freedom of expression in Germany merely for a statement, that he beats Kurds and Christians.”

Pirate Party members have been staging weekly demonstrations in front of Turkey’s Berlin embassy, protesting “systematic terror of censorship, oppression, despotism and killings of the dictator Erdogan.”

Merkel claims she supports free media and public expression. Her actions show her turning Germany into a police state like Turkey.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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