Erdoğan angered at satirical video shown on German media
Tayyip Erdoğan certainly ranks in top few leaders in the world ever who have taken their citizens to court in numbers of hundreds on allegations of having confronted the president and so forth. There are many Turkish citizens who have been penalized by Turkish courts for having insulted Erdoğan (the president) and what is more interesting is Erdoğan has now taken further steps to have journalists in Germany penalized on charges of insulting the Turkish president.
However it seems that Germany has not been very impressed by such efforts so far. In fact, when Erdogan was reportedly angered at a satirical video of him being shown on German media, he summoned Berlin’s ambassador on which occasion Germany’s response was simple: respect freedom of speech.
As many may have already watched it, a German satirical video spread online mocking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his crackdown on the press and many more critical issues happening in Turkey recently.
After summoning Ambassador Martin Erdmann, the Foreign Office in Berlin said they had used the opportunity not to apologize, but to put pressure on Turkey to support free speech instead of censoring it. “The rule of law, the independence of the justice system and the protection of basic freedoms, including freedom of the press and speech are important commodities that we must all protect together,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
(The video in question originally aired on March 17 on Germany’s public NDR broadcaster. Featuring a song titled “Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan” (a play on the Turkish leader’s name and the name of an old German hit song), there are lyrics such as “a journalist that writes something that doesn’t suit Erdogan is in jail tomorrow.” Accompanying the song are images of police breaking up demonstrations and pictures of the president himself.)
In the past year, many Turkish journalists who have been critical of Erdogan have seen themselves in court on espionage charges, and many of the country’s independent media outlets have been bought up by businesspeople friendly to the president. The German media was similarly unimpressed by Erdogan’s fury. The leader of Germany’s main journalism union, the DJV, said that the leader had “clearly lost his grip” if he was going to make such a fuss over a comedy video.
Speaking with news outlet “Spiegel Online,” the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) decried the “hopeless arrogance” of President Erdogan trying to “intimidate” Germany and its basic freedoms.
SOURCE: MEDIA
