NO FREE SPEECH IN GERMANY: German cartoonist sacked after Netanyahu drawing

NO FREE SPEECH IN GERMANY: German cartoonist sacked after Netanyahu drawing

Previously, Dieter Hanitzsch drew Turkish president, but was defended over free speech

German cartoonist sacked after Netanyahu drawing

By Cuneyt Karadag

BERLIN

A leading German daily fired a cartoonist over anti-semitic views on Friday after he drew a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The cartoon by Dieter Hanitzsch showed Netanyahu carrying a missile in his hand. He is dressed up as Israeli singer Netta Barzilai, who won this year’s Eurovision contest. A speech bubble on top says: “Next year in Jerusalem.”

The cartoon led to an uproar on social media and other German media outlets.

Suddeutsche Zeitung’s Editor-in-Chief Wolfgang Krach apologized for the caricature, however Hanitzsch refused.

Speaking to local media outlets, the 85-year-old cartoonist said he wanted to criticize Netanyahu’s exploitation of the Eurovision contest for his own purposes and accused him of abusing the singer’s victory.

He added that it was not a common thing for a newspaper to fire its cartoonist over a drawing.

“You can reprimand him, warn him, but firing is not a good way,” he said.

Previously, Hanitzsch had drawn cartoons criticizing and even insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was defended on the basis of freedom of the press and expression, for his drawings published in the same newspaper.

 

AfD Politician Censored Under New German Hate Speech Law For Anti-Muslim Tweet

AfD Politician Censored Under New German Hate Speech Law For Anti-Muslim Tweet
January 2, 2018
Beatrix von Storch, a leading figure in the Alternative for Germany party, is one of the first hit by new hate speech laws on social media. Critics say the legislation opens the way for censorship by internet companies.

A top lawmaker from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was blocked from Twitter and Facebook on Monday after slamming the Cologne police for sending a New Year’s tweet in Arabic. The incident caused the AfD to lash out further and criticize censorship as a controversial new German social media law known as NetzDG went into effect January 1 in a bid to clamp down on online hate speech.

The Cologne police tweeted New Year’s greetings and linked to information on celebrating safely in a series of messages in German and other languages, including Arabic. Cologne was the scene two years ago of mass sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve in which most of the suspects were described as young men of North African and Arab origin.

“What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping hordes of Muslim men?” wrote Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the AfD’s parliamentary group.

The tweet was later deleted after Twitter froze von Storch’s account and informed her she had violated hate speech rules. Her account was shut down for 12 hours. The Cologne police said on Monday that they had filed a criminal complaint against von Storch for hate speech.

Von Storch undeterred

The lawmaker then upped the ante, writing a sarcastic post once her account was reopened. She also announced that her Facebook account had been “censored” due to a hate speech complaint.

“Facebook has also censored me. That is the end of the constitutional state,” she wrote, showing the message she received from the social media giant.

Due to the Cologne police criminal complaint, she wrote that state prosecutors would have to investigate lifting her parliamentary immunity, then indict her and go through a court process to finally convict her.

“My knees are shaking,” she wrote of such an unlikely scenario. “But Facebook has already issued a judgment.”

New year, controversial new law

The AfD has branded NetzDG as a “censorship law.” But they are not alone in criticizing a law that requires companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to remove content that advocates violence or slander or face fines of up to 50 million euros ($53 million).

Internet activists and journalist organizations have also raised objections, not least because the government has deliberately left the task of deleting content or blocking users to the internet platforms themselves, rather than having courts make decisions.

The AfD appears to want to make the new social media law a major issue by testing boundaries and provoking a response from social media companies and law enforcement authorities.

AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel wrote on Facebook and Twitter defending her party colleague and lamenting what she called the “censorship law,” while sharing the text of von Storch’s deleted tweet and repeating her complaints, while referring to “migrant mobs” instead of Muslim men specifically.

Cologne police later said on Tuesday that they had received criminal complaints against Weidel

SOLSTICE VIDEO BANNED IN ITALY & GERMANY

SOLSTICE VIDEO BANNED IN ITALY & GERMANY
 


 

Excellent, dear Paul; and so are the viewers’ reactions (you won’t be surprised to be informed that this video has also been made “unavailable” in my country too…). I didn’t like the ambiguous viewer’s comment on “not hiding”.

Kind regards,

Italo VERNAZZA

____

Your film has been censored Zionist totalitarian Merkelstan  (Germany).

Roy

 

Paul Fromm’s Winter Solstice in Germany

ttps://youtu.be/ELRYXyH6eRI

Paul Fromm returned from a very moving outdoor winter solstice gathering in Germany with a bonfire. Paul is the Director, Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE) since 1983, at: http://cafe.nfshost.com/.
His playlist of over 100 videos is: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list

Paul is also the Director of the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee at: http://canadafirst.nfshost.com/

Winner of the George Orwell Free Speech Award, 1994.

Co-host of “The Trump Phenomenon” Radio Show on RBN (week nights, 9:00 p.m. EST)

You can join Paul’s email list by contacting him at paul@paulfromm.com .

To encourage peace and prevent war, the Brian Ruhe channel has a stunning high standard of truth and bravely raises awareness about the Rothschild, Zionist, Talmudist powers. If you love this content, love that it’s free for everyone, please donate monthly at https://gogetfunding.com/brian-ruhe-i

Paul Fromm returned from a very moving outdoor winter solstice gathering in Germany with a bonfire. Paul is the Director,…