{"id":306604,"date":"2025-04-11T06:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T06:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=306604"},"modified":"2025-04-12T05:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T05:46:15","slug":"journalist-given-7-month-prison-sentence-for-posting-meme-about-erosion-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=306604","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Given 7 Month PRISON SENTENCE For Posting MEME About Erosion Of Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Steve Watson \u2013 modernity.news April 9, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p><strong>A journalist in Germany has been sentenced to seven months in prison on probation as well as a fine of almost sixty percent of his annual income. His crime? Posting a meme.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes really.<\/p>\n<p>Worse still, it was a meme mocking the German government for eroding freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p><em>Die Welt<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.welt.de\/politik\/deutschland\/article255889578\/Nancy-Faeser-Bewaehrungsstrafe-nach-X-Post-Gericht-verurteilt-Deutschland-Kurier-Chefredakteur.html?source=puerto-reco-2_ABC-V45.3.C_new_conversion\">reports<\/a>\u00a0that a\u00a0district court in Bavaria handed the sentence to\u00a0<em>Deutschland-Kurier\u00a0<\/em>editor\u00a0David Bendels for posting an image on social media of German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser holding\u00a0a\u00a0sign<\/p>\n<p>The sign was digitally altered to read \u201cI hate freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"de\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Faeser?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Faeser<\/a> HASST <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Meinungsfreiheit?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Meinungsfreiheit<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O0Wr0dLpJb\">pic.twitter.com\/O0Wr0dLpJb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Deutschland Kurier (@Deu_Kurier) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Deu_Kurier\/status\/1762895292075053348?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The ruling was confirmed Monday, finding that the journalist had committed \u201cdefamation directed against people in political life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bendels claims that no one has ever been sentenced to prison for such an action in Germany, and that the harsh punishment comes after Faeser personally intervened.<\/p>\n<p>Bendels stated\u00a0\u201cWe will not accept this verdict and will defend ourselves against it using all legal means,\u201d adding\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0<em>Deutschland-Kurier<\/em>\u00a0and I personally will continue the just struggle for freedom of the press and freedom of expression, which is indispensable for the continued existence of democracy in Germany, resolutely, stably and with all consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the ruling, regional leader of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Thuringia, Bj\u00f6rn H\u00f6cke urged \u201cGerman politicians, responsible for the deindustrialization of our country and tearing its citizens apart from each other made Germany a laughingstock of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey armor themselves and attack freedom of speech again and again, ending our constitutional democracy,\u201d H\u00f6cke further asserted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been warned by Donald Trump and Elon Musk: The enemies of freedom are found within the EU-governments!\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n<p>As we have previously highlighted, this insane authoritarian crack down on people posting memes is now commonplace in Germany.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ehD7LNW_-rE?si=cVZ4mqZY6OXU2ayK\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><em>Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pauljosephwatson.locals.com\/support\">Locals<\/a>\u00a0or check out our unique\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.modernity.news\/shop\">merch<\/a>. Follow us on X\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/modernitynews\">@ModernityNews<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/modernity.news\/2025\/04\/09\/journalist-given-7-month-prison-sentence-for-posting-meme-about-erosion-of-free-speech\/\">Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plus he was fined 60 percent of his annual income<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":306606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306607,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306604\/revisions\/306607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/306606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}