A German journalist has been hit with a suspended sentence after poking fun at the country's Interior Minister on social media.
David Bendels, the editor-in-chief of Deutschland-Kurier, had shared an image online in February of Nancy Faeser holding a digitally manipulated sign reading: "I hate freedom of speech."
The Interior Minister was then said to have been notified about the post by police - and subsequently filed a criminal complaint.
Bamberg District Court later concluded that unbiased viewers might not have been able to recognise that the photo had been changed from the original.
Bamberg District Court concluded that unbiased viewers might not have been able to recognise that the photo had been changed
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The sentencing is the harshest ever handed down to a journalist for a "speech crime" in the Federal Republic of Germany - and he has also been forced to pay a substantial fine for the speech crime "against a person in political life".
Judges ruled Bendels was guilty because he had distributed a "factual claim about the Minister of the Interior, Faeser... that was not recognisably... inauthentic".
They also judged that his meme was "likely to significantly impair [Faeser's] public image".
And alongside his fine and sentence, the presiding judge demanded that Bendels write a written apology to Faeser for his social media post.
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Bendels (pictured) has no prior criminal convictions and is expected to launch an appeal
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Bendels has no prior criminal convictions, is expected to launch an appeal, and insists that the post was satirical.
In a statement following his sentencing, he said: "We will not accept this judgment and we'll fight it with all the legal means at our disposal.
"The Deutschland-Kurier and I personally will continue the just struggle for freedom of the press and for freedom of opinion with determination, resolve and consistency - for this fight is indispensable for the continued existence of democracy in Germany."
The original image had depicted Faeser holding a sign commemorating those who were killed by the Nazis, and read: "We remember."
Tory peer Lord Young jabbed: "Irony is truly dead. Murdered by 'liberal' authoritarianism"
PAIn reaction to Bendels's suspended sentence, which has kicked off a political storm in Germany, columnist Alan Posener wrote in Die Zeit newspaper: "Repurposing this photo in this way is tasteless and provocative.
"Accusing the Interior Minister of a democratic state of hating freedom of expression is stupid and mean.
"But punishable? Fortunately, neither bad taste nor stupidity, meanness nor provocation are punishable."
And Free Speech Union director and Tory peer Lord Young jabbed: "Irony is truly dead. Murdered by 'liberal' authoritarianism."
