No freedom of speech in Poland

In a functioning democracy, calling a politician a moron is practically a human right. Debate is expected to be robust, and this includes assessing the personal characteristics of public figures. But not in Poland:

A Polish writer faces a possible prison sentence for insulting President Andrzej Duda by calling him a “moron” over comments the latter made about Joe Biden’s US election victory.

Jakub Żulczyk, the screenwriter behind the popular TV series Blinded by the Lights and Belfer, said prosecutors had charged him under an article in the criminal code for insulting the head of state in a Facebook post.

“I am, I suspect, the first writer in this country in a very long time to be tried for what he wrote,” he said on Facebook.

Poland has become increasingly authoritarian over the past few years, as the Law and Justice party has dug its claws in, but this is a new low, and suggests they may be heading in the same direction as Hungary and Spain.

So much for lese majeste in Spain

In 2007, two Catalans set fire to a life-sized portrait of Spain's monarch to protest a royal visit to their town. For this, they were charged with "insulting the monarchy" and sentenced to 15 months imprisonment - though this was later reduced to a 2,700 Euro fine. But the European Court of Human Rights has just ruled that they should never have been prosecuted:

The European Court of Human Rights said on Tuesday that Spain had wrongfully condemned two Catalans for publicly burning a photograph of the king and queen, saying that the act was justifiable political criticism.

In their unanimous ruling, the judges said they were “not convinced” that the burning “could reasonably be construed as incitement to hatred or violence.”

[...]

In its ruling, the court said that the photo burning “had not been a personal attack on the king of Spain geared to insulting and vilifying his person, but a denunciation of what the king represented as the head and the symbol of the state apparatus and the forces which, according to the applicants, had occupied Catalonia.”

And just like that, Spain's archaic lese majeste law is dust. Spanish courts are bound to obey the ECHR, and its effectively just ruled out any prosecution for political criticism. Hopefully this will lead to a review of the cases of those currently jailed (including rapper Valtonyc) and compensation for the victims of this unjust law.

No freedom of speech in Spain

Oh look - Spain still has an archaic lese majeste law:

Spain's Supreme Court confirmed Tuesday rapper Jose Miguel Arenas, known as Valtonyc, will serve three and half years in prison for insulting, slandering Spain's monarchs and "exalting terrorism." Arenas was found guilty by a national tribunal on Feb. 7.

Valtonyc had argued he was exercising his right to free speech and artistic creation, but the court dismissed his defense saying the songs he wrote and published via internet include support of terrorist groups and attacks against the king and his family.

Spain is supposed to be a democratic country which respects freedom of expression, as required by the European Convention on Human Rights. But as we've seen from the state use of violence to suppress Catalonia's democratic desire for independence, it has abandoned those values. Civilised states don't have special criminal libel laws protecting the monarch, and civilised states allow people to criticize corrupt aristocrats and comment on politics without going to jail. But I guess Spain isn't really civilised any more.

Abolishing lese majeste in Germany

Lese majeste - the "crime" of insulting rulers - is a holdover from feudalism and antithetical to democracy. Germany has finally recognised that and is planning to abolish its lese majeste law:

Germany has decided to abolish a law which defends the honour of foreign leaders.

International heads of state will no longer be able to ask the German government to prosecute people deemed to have offended them under an obscure passage of German law.

The decision comes just days after Donald Trump's inauguration as US President and a year after Angela Merkel authorised the investigation of a TV comic who wrote a crude poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It also comes five years after the European Court of Human Rights effectively gutted lese majeste laws in Otegi Mondragon v. Spain. Which really makes you ask "what took them so long"?

Absurdity in Thailand

How absurd is Thailand's lese majeste law? A man could be jailed under it for insulting the king's dog:

A Thai factory worker could go to prison for a "sarcastic" post on social media in which he disparaged the king's dog, Tongdaeng.

The worker, Thanakorn Siripaiboon, faces years in prison for his crimes, which include sedition and insulting the king.

As the New York Times reports, Siripaiboon's lawyer, Anon Numpa, said the precise insult towards the dog was not specified in the military court where he was charged.

The idea of punishing people for criticising those in power is deeply undemocratic. Punishing people for snarking about their pets is simply absurd. Rather like monarchy itself, really.

The first rule of lese majeste is that you don't talk about lese majeste...

Somyot Prueksakasemsuk is a Thai magazine editor. In 2011 he was arrested for publishing two articles which (according to monarchists) disparaged Thailand's king. And for that, he's just been sentenced to 11 years in jail:

He was sentenced to five years on each of the two charges, and the court cancelled the suspension of a previous one-year sentence - for a total of 11 years in prison, a cumulative sentence.

The severity of the sentence caught both Somyot and his family - his wife and son - totally by suprise, as it was harsher than previous rulings in other lese majeste cases, which usually were based on the minimum sentence of three years.

The real reason for the severe sentence? Somyot had been campaigning for Thailand's lese majeste law to be repealed. He was arrested just five days after launching a petition campaign to force a Parliamentary review of the law. And now, he's become its latest victim.

No freedom of speech in Kuwait

Ayyad al-Harbi is a Kuwaiti tweeter. Two months ago he criticised the country's Emir online. He was arrested, and today he was sentenced to two years imprisonment:

A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison on Monday for insulting the country's ruler on Twitter, his lawyer said, the second person to be jailed for the offence in as many days.

[...]

The court sentenced Ayyad al-Harbi, who has more than 13,000 followers on Twitter, to the prison term two months after his arrest and release on bail.

Harbi used his Twitter account to criticise the Kuwait government and the emir. He tweeted on Sunday: "Tomorrow morning is my trial's verdict on charges of slander against the emir, spreading of false news."

And he's not the only one. Yesterday a second man, Rashid Saleh al-Anzi, was also jailed for two years for a similar offence. Sadly, the exact things these people said are not available - but the idea that someone should be jailed for criticising those in power is ridiculous and undemocratic. But then, Kuwait is a monarchy - so "ridiculous and undemocratic" pretty much sums up its entire constitutional structure.

Thailand's monarchy claims a victim

In August 2010, Thai truck driver Amphon Tangnoppakul was accused of sending text messages to a government official insulting that country's queen. He was put on trial for lese majeste, convicted, and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

Today, he died in jail.

That's the cost of lese majeste laws: dead people. And if anyone thinks that protecting someone's "dignity" is worth a single human life, then they are simply monsters.

The end of lese majeste in Europe

Arnaldo Otegi is a Basque separatist leader. In 2003, after Spanish police raided and closed down a Basque leader and tortured its staff, he accused Spain's king, as head of the armed forces and police, of being ultimately responsible for torture and the oppression of his people. He was subsequently convicted of insulting the monarch - lese majeste - and sentenced to a year in jail.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights overturned that conviction on freedom of speech grounds, and ordered that Otegi be compensated. But its not just a victory for freedom of speech in Spain - other European nations, including Germany, Poland, Italy and Turkey also have lese majeste laws (laws protecting the "dignity" of monarchs or those in power from "insult" by being criticised). And those laws have now been effectively overturned. Given their abuse to stifle dissent, protect dictators, and punish protest, that can only be a good thing.

No freedom of speech in Egypt

Moneer Said Hanna is an Egyptian civil servant. One day, he wrote a satirical poem about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. For this, he was arrested and jailed for three years for "insulting the head of state".

Egypt is not alone in having laws aimed at protecting the "dignity" of the leader. Like the old law of lese majeste, they are based on medieval conceptions of what peasants were allowed to say (and think) about their "betters". Such laws - and indeed, the underlying conceptions of "peasants" and "betters" - have no place in a modern democracy. But that's the problem: Egypt isn't a democracy, but a dictatorship, where the government holds power by systematically terrorising the population and "wins" elections by beating, gassing, and shooting the opposition.

No freedom of speech in Kuwait

Nasra Alshamery is an Australian citizen. In January, while on a trip to Kuwait with her family, she was involved in a dispute with Kuwaiti immigration officials. Her husband and family were beaten, and she was threatened with rape, before being arrested. She has now been sentenced to two years' imprisonment for insulting the country's ruler.

Like Thailand's lese majeste law, this would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. A woman is looking at two years jail for something which should not be a crime in any civilised country. The fact that the charge seems to be a punishment for talking back to a self-important official just makes it worse. But I guess that's Kuwait for you - a despotism from top to bottom.

Pardoned

Harry Nicolaides, the Australian author jailed in Thailand for the archaic "crime" of lese majeste, has been pardoned and released. He has now (sensibly) fled Thailand for a country which respects free speech and does not imprison people for writing bad novels. But while this is good news, Thailand's ridiculous law remains on the books, and the government is using it increasingly to stifle opposition to its plans to move Thailand away from democracy (or just to squash tourists used to freedom of speech). That should not be acceptable in any civilised country, and until Thailand repeals its law, people simply should not go there.

Banned in Thailand

What did Australian author Harry Nicolaides write which so offended the Thai government and caused them to jail him for lese majeste? Thanks to the Streisand effect, the relevant excerpt is now available on WikiLeaks:

From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had many wives "major and minor" with a coterie of concubines for entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and fathered another child. It was rumored that if the prince fell in love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all vestiges of their existence expunged forever.

(The entire novel is also available here [PDF]. Given that it only sold seven copies, I don't think anyone is going to be losing money over it...)

So, basically establishing that the (fictional) Crown Prince has absolute power and uses it in his self-interest. You can see how the Thai government (who through the monarch have absolute power and use it in their self-interest) might be upset by that - but the fact remains that in a democratic society, nothing is held sacred, and you are allowed to say these sorts of things.

Unfortunately, as we've seen in recent years, and in recent use of the lese majeste law, Thailand isn't really a democratic society...

No freedom of speech in Thailand

Harry Nicolaides is an Australian author living in Thailand. In 2005, he published a novel, Verisimilitude, which included a short scene discussing the personal life of a fictional Thai prince and suggested some sort of abuse of royal power. For this, he was detained when leaving the country, and has just been sentenced to three years imprisonment for "slander[ing] the king, the crown prince and Thailand and the monarchy".

So, not only can the Thai government not distinguish between fiction and reality - they're also unable to recognise that this actual abuse of power does far more damage to the reputation of their sacred monarch than anything written in a bad novel. But pointing that out is probably the sort of thing which gets you arrested.

Lese Majeste in Italy

Sabina Guzzanti is an Italian comedian and political activist. She is currently facing up to five years in jail. Her crime? Suggesting that when the Pope died, he would go to hell where he would be sodomised by demons.

This is simply medieval. But its what happens when you have an archaic lese majeste law on the books, an international treaty which demands it be used against people who insult the Pope, and a government which wants to snuggle up to the Vatican. What next? Berlusconi will reinstate the Inquisition?

This is a perfect example of both the danger and the absurdity of lese majeste laws. It's also a perfect example of how those who think they have some sort of "sacred and inviolable" honour which demands that their critics be thrown in jail in fact have none.

More lese majeste in Thailand

Last August, a former chief of staff to deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin (and now government Minister) Jakrapob Penkair gave a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. In it, he criticised one of the generals who had led the 2006 coup and attacked Thailand's system of "guided democracy" and patronage:

Patronage system is problematic because it encourages unequality among individuals.

And that’s a direct conflict to Democracy.

It encourages one person into thinking of depending on the other or others.

It breeds endless number of slaves with a very limited number of masters.

It prevents Thailand from coming out of age.

For saying this, Penkair has now been charged with lese majeste and faces between three and fifteen years in prison. Three to fifteen years for pointing out the simple truth that Thailand's rich and powerful have systematically infantilised their own people in order to maintain their positions.

This is how monarchies and aristocracies remain in power. And it seems to me to be an excellent reason for getting rid of them.

Lese majeste in Thailand

Lese majeste is the ancient offence of injuring the dignity of the sovereign. In western democracies, it has rightly been relegated to the dustbin of history (though it still survives in New Zealand as contempt of Parliament). Unfortunately, other countries have not. There's a case going on in Thailand at the moment which demonstrates the absurdity of such laws.

Oliver Jufer is a Swiss man living in Thailand. Last December while drunk he defaced several paintings of the Thai king with black paint. He was arrested and charged, and has now pled guilty. The minimum possible sentence he can receive for the offence is seven and a half years in jail. For defacing a painting. IMHO that's a far greater threat to the "dignity" of the sovereign than the paint ever was.

To his credit, the Thai king thinks the law is absurd and should be repealed. But in a country where the monarchy can not be publicly debated, and where advocating repeal would itself be seen as lese majeste, that seems impossible. And an absurd law with draconian penalties persists, all to protect the fiction of monarchical "dignity".

Reviving lese majeste

So, the Finance and Expenditure Committee looks likely to drag former TVNZ chairman Craig Boyce over the coals over his emails. This is deeply disturbing, to say the least. It is one thing to take a strong position on the accountability of chief executives to Parliament, and to crack down on attempts to manipulate evidence to Select Committees and evade Parliamentary oversight. But according to this morning's Herald, the committee is going to apply a blowtorch because Boyce called them names. Such an "investigation", even of government employees, simply has no place in a free and democratic society.

Back in the pre-Enlightenment days, before our governments learned to fear us, Kings would throw people in jail for disrespecting them or offending against their dignity. The "crime" was called lese majeste, and in Britain at least one of the mechanisms for punishing such "crimes" was the Star Chamber. The fact that it is an elected Parliament doing it, rather than an inbred git with pretentions of grandeur doesn't make it any more acceptable. This "crime" is bullshit, and if the Bill of Rights' affirmation of freedom of expression means anything, surely it means the right to call MP's "bastards".

The Committee is treading on dangerous ground here, and it needs to pull back before it revives lese majeste. It is inappropriate in this day and age to punish people for their attitude towards politicians. It is inappropriate even to inquire into it. And any politician who thinks differently isn't just a bastard - they are a danger to every single one of us.

Winston has the wrong crime

So, now that I've stopped laughing at Winston's senior moment, I should also point out that he's accusing the Herald of the wrong crime. While criticising the performance of the ruler was historically the chief reason for prosecutions for lese majeste, we don't have that sort of law on the books in New Zealand (anymore). And treason, as defined in s73 of the Crimes Act 1961, requires waging, inciting, assisting or conspiring to invade or overthrow the government of New Zealand with armed force. The crime Winston should be accusing the Herlad of is not treason, but sedition. Which is yet another reminder of why we need to get rid of that archaic law...

More on lese majeste

Mark Kleiman has some amusing comments on the recent decision by France to criminalise disrespect of the flag or national anthem. Next they'll be fining people for singing it badly...