It has attracted attention that Germany will investigate a comedian for insulting Turkey’s president, but to violate foreign states by “offensive acts” is forbidden in Norway as well .
According to the paragraph if a person “in this country violates the foreign state by exercising violence against or being threatening or abusive towards a representative of the” he or she risks a fine or up to one year in prison newspaper Dagbladet writes referring to Section 184a of the new Penal Code. But although it is possible to be sentenced for this, the threshold high for indicting and sentencing anyone, lawyer and researcher Anine Kierulf says.
– As long as they are not engaged in direct defamation, hate speech, threats or incitement to violence, the comedians will for the most part be protected by freedom of speech. There are very large room for political satire.
In Germany Prime Minister Angela Merkel has said the that comedian Jan Böhmermann might be prosecuted after his coarse ridicule directed against Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. That the government is to decide whether a case will be taken to court because of complaint from abroad, is peculiar to Germany.
– In Norway, it would be out of the question to contact Erna Solberg to get her to initiate a criminal case. We have an independent prosecuting authority, Supreme Court Justice Magnus Arvid Matningsdal says.
Source: NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
