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Comment by wyager | Hacker News Reader

Ah, France and Germany, champions of civil rights. France, where Muslim women are prevented from wearing religiously motivated garb in public. Germany, where people are prosecuted for insulting foreign dictators. Is anyone surprised to see them produce such garbage?

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> Germany, where people are prosecuted for insulting foreign dictators.

This one (§ 103 StGB [0]) is going to be fixed in 2018. Not instantly, because Merkel did not want to intervene in an ongoing legal process.

[0]: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_st...

Let's hope the trend will reverse, because I am very worried by the growing racist sentiment across the entire world. Not to mention that racism is exactly the wrong way to go about fixing things.

There is nothing racism-specific to that law (and how could there be, because then the law would have to define race). The same law applies whether Erdogan, Mugabe, Kim Yong Un, Theresa May or Christian Kern gets insulted; the problem is that it allows a foreign (as in non-domestic) head of state -- a public figure by definition -- to request prosecution in a case that might very well touch upon, if not outright collide with, §5 GG.

You can insult Theresa May as much as you like, you won't charged under this law - as long as May is not in Germany when you do so.

The law only universally applies to Heads of States, not Heads of Governments.

You can be charged under different laws, though (§ 185 - § 200 StGB [0]). There is a higher threshold of what public figures have to tolerate, still like everybody else, foreign politicians can sue you under these paragraphs for insulting them.

[0] https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_stgb/englisch_st...

Ah, sorry, I wasn't familiar with the above law, I was more talking about the incident in France, but was off-topic in replying to you.

A similar law was proposed in the US not long ago:

http://www.burr.senate.gov/press/releases/intelligence-commi...

To be fair to the GP, I don't think the US is considered a bastion of civil liberties...

Please keep nationalistic putdowns off HN.

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