German court rejects Erdogan injunction against Axel Springer chief

Guy Chazan in Berlin

A German court rejected an injunction requested by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan against the chief executive of Axel Springer, the media group, in the latest stage of a long-running dispute that has raised fears over press freedom in Germany.

The case was triggered by an open letter by Mathias Döpfner in support of Jan Böhmermann, the German comic, whose anti-Erdogan poem on German television in March sparked a diplomatic scandal.

 In the poem, Mr Böhmermann accused Mr Erdogan of having sex with goats and sheep, and said he enjoyed “kicking Kurds and beating up Christians while watching child porn”.

A statement by the court in the western city of Cologne said Mr Döpfner had a “constitutional right . . . to freedom of expression”.

Ralf Höcker, Mr Erdogan’s German lawyer, said he would file an appeal.

Last month Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, gave the green light for German prosecutors to pursue a criminal case against Mr Böhmermann, in a move that sparked fierce criticism in German political circles.

Opposition MPs accused her of kowtowing to Mr Erdogan, whose political influence in Europe has grown since the conclusion of a Turkey-EU deal to resolve the refugee crisis. EU leaders say the agreement has helped to significantly reduce the influx of migrants in Europe.

In his open letter in support of Mr Böhmermann , published last month in the newspaper Die Welt, Mr Döpfner told the comedian his anti-Erdogan tirade was a “work of art”.

“I find your poem a success,” he wrote. “I laughed out loud.”

Mr Döpfner added that he endorsed all the “formulations and calumnies” in the work and would put his name to them “in any juridical form”.

“Maybe in this way we will get to know each other in court,” he said.

The court said that, as a “contribution towards shaping public opinion in a controversial debate”, Mr Döpfner’s intervention was lawful.

It also noted that the Axel Springer chief had not ”disseminated” or reproduced any of Mr Böhmermann’s allegedly unlawful statements.

Mr Höcker said he had sought an interim injunction that would prevent Mr Döpfner repeating his insults against the Turkish president.

He added that he had successfully sought such a measure against the German director Uwe Boll, who had produced an anti-Erdogan video inspired by the TV comic’s poem.

“If you look in the internet, loads of people are now trying to emulate Böhmermann, insulting Mr Erdogan in the worst way possible,” Mr Höcker said in an interview.

“Anyone who does this must expect that we will take action against them.”

Mr Erdogan is famously allergic to satire. Since he was elected president last year, nearly 2,000 cases have been opened against people suspected of insulting the Turkish leader, the justice ministry reported this month.

A spokeswoman for Axel Springer said the company had so far not received any information about Mr Erdogan’s request. “It’s important to note that Mr Döpfner wanted to defend the freedom of art and satire in his open letter — that was the reason for [it].”

In a statement on its website, Mr Höcker’s law firm said the Cologne court had ruled that the video produced by Mr Boll had resulted in personal injury to Mr Erdogan and issued an injunction preventing Mr Boll from repeating the insults that the video contained.

 Original