Free speech in Europe is a funny thing.
In the Netherlands we have something called "Freedom of expression".
However, you can't discriminate against religions, sex, ethnicity, race etc. ,denying the Holocaust is forbidden, insulting the royal family and or a befriended head of state is also forbidden but satire isn't.
By Dutch law calling Erdogan a pedo would actually be forbidden. Light hearted jokes about Muhammed would not be but no one wants to end up dead like Theo van Gogh so comedians avoid the subject as much as possible.
These laws were seldom used but with everything turning POLITICAL there are more and more cases regarding these subjects.
Germany had the comic who wrote a poem about Erdogan and was dragged to court. In the Netherlands we had Wilders, who asked his voters: "Do you want more or less moroccans?" to which everyone replied: "LESS LESS LESS"
And that stunt has him doing trials for the past 3 years now.
Holocaust denial was not much of a thing for a while until radical islamists started to spread the gospel again. So now a lot of young Turks deny both the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide ever happened.
Every once in a while the government makes an example out of someone who crossed the line (Wilders) but in general these laws aren't enforced.
Which makes it all the more tricky when someone who throws an insult at the king is suddenly fined.
Where the EU stands on this is clear, when a bunch of weirdo's in the US made a hilarious shitty movie critizing the Islam and riots started(
) Schultz who headed up the EU parliament at that time did this:
It was then that I understood that politicians would never understand internet culture and trolling and thus would be powerless if those forces were ever used against them.
