Turkish Government Summons German Ambassador Because Of A Silly Satirical Video… That's Now Getting More Attention
from the erdowhat? dept
We’ve written a few times about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who appears to have one of the thinnest skins of any national leader anywhere. He’s been filing an average of over 100 lawsuits a month over “insults” to himself. And the latest is that the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the German Ambassador Martin Erdmann to explain why a German television station, NDR, broadcast a silly satirical video (gently) mocking Erdogan. You can see that video here (with English subtitles):
And imagine how much more effective it would have been if Erdogan and the Turkish government (a) ignored the video or (b) laughed it off? Instead, in freaking out about it, it only makes people think that it’s worth taking seriously.
Filed Under: germany, insulting, martin erdmann, recep tayyip erdogan, satire, streisand effect, thin skin, turkey
Companies: ndr
Comments on “Turkish Government Summons German Ambassador Because Of A Silly Satirical Video… That's Now Getting More Attention”
He should sue himself
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has, solely through his own reactions to people teasing him, has demonstrated that he is a whiny baby who is unworthy of respect.
I’m waiting for him to take appropriate legal action.
power causes a form of brain damage.
I'm surprised
Talking of thin skinned over reactors I’m surprised that Disney hasn’t taken this video down due to the sequence ~20 seconds in.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is obviously a total moron.
Ooops! I guess he’ll now be summoning the US ambassador.
NDR = German Gov channel
One think to mention is that the NDR is part of the German mandatory channels, in German if you like to google “öffentlich rechtliche” or former “GEZ”. That means it is financed by every German household with a part of the mandatory payment of about €20 per household and month. If a household refuses to pay that they can be imprisoned or otherwise forced to pay that amount even if they do not own a TV, radio or have access to the internet.
The people in charge of the organization are primarily ex politicians or people who publicly approved that kind of forced taxes.
In case you thought that the NDR is a regular TV station. Because it is not and if private TV stations would grow a pair they could easily win in court if they ever managed to sue the gov for unfair competition. But if they did they would probably loose their license…
Re: NDR = German Gov channel
. That means it is financed by every German household with a part of the mandatory payment of about €20 per household and month
Like the BBC then.
The function of these channels is to keep the provate channels honest – without them the private channels fill up with ads at an annoyance level that is beyond funny as I rediscover anytime I watch television outside the UK.
The real risk with the publicly funded channels is government interference – and since this particular video is also taking a sideswipe at Merkel I don’t think there seems to be a problem there.
Who is paying you? Murdoch or Erdogan?
Re: Re: NDR = German Gov channel
“Who is paying you? Murdoch or Erdogan?”
Honestly, I’d be glad to be paid by anyone of those because I could make millions (feel free to call me wink). Sad truth, none of them pay me, I’m a poor bastard.
“without them the private channels fill up with ads at an annoyance level that is beyond funny as I rediscover anytime I watch television outside the UK”
I can’t speak for the UK or in this case the BBC for two reasons. (1) my personal experience with the BBC is that they don’t have that many ads and (2) I am not British.
But I am German so what I definitely can say is that the German counterparts to the BBC (about 40 TV channels total + radio) do have the same amount of ads as the private channels. They even have those as a fixed amount in their annual budgets (feel free to check via Google).
So I get and understand the need for some unbiased quality TV but that doesn’t mean you should pay individuals €4500 per minute (Günther Jauch). Yes minute… 60 seconds…
Talking about Gov interference… like I said before. Most of the people on the board or in charge are from Merkel’s party. So even if they make a small attack against Merkel they can easily recover and force the other issues because they control what is published. And that leaves the impression you observed: they can’t possibly be pro Gov if they attack the Gov. But if the next 10 articles are pro Gov then you don’t have anything to left to base your unbiased stance on.
Re: Re: Re: NDR = German Gov channel
BBC don’t have any ads at all – I guess that is the difference. Maybe the BBC is a kind of happy accident that has largely avoided toeing the governmnt line despite being publicly funded.
What bothered me was that the arguments you made were very reminiscent of the Murdoch press’ attempts to bring down the BBC – when of course the Murdoch press is more biased than just about any other mainstream media outlet.
Re: Re: Re:2 NDR = German Gov channel
“BBC don’t have any ads at all…”
I have to take issue with this – the BBC are notorious for advertising itself, via itself, across all it’s flagship TV and radio shows. I recall when staying in the UK a decade ago listening to one of the BBC’s directors being interviewed on the BBC’s own Radio 4 Breakfast show by Eddie Mair. She was being challenged to explain just how much the BBC was spending on billboard advertizing in London, rumoured to be in the millions. Just in London.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/bbc-spends-15million-on-adverts-6951588.html
She flatly refused to answer the question as there was no legal requirement for her to do so. “I’m not going to answer that question because I don’t have to do so”. The true figure never came out. The BBC, for all it’s vaunted Royal Charter, is by no means a shining beacon of light.
Re: Re: NDR = German Gov channel
Commercials don’t bother me at all. That’s what a DVR is for, to just skip them all. Hell now with my Tivo Roamio and it’s new update I can hit the green button once and it’ll skip them all and start right at the end of all the commercials. I get my TV with a Antenna and so pay ZERO for TV service per month!!!
A mandatory Tax wither you have a TV or not is just DUMB. Doesn’t the BBC get it’s money from TV’s people have. If you have no TV you pay nothing, but if you do, you pay for each one you have? It’s just ridiculous to be forced to pay a tax on something you don’t have or use.
Re: Re: Re: NDR = German Gov channel
Doesn’t the BBC get it’s money from TV’s people have. If you have no TV you pay nothing, but if you do, you pay for each one you have?
No you only pay one licence regardless of how many TV’s you have.
Commercials don’t bother me at all. That’s what a DVR is for, to just skip them all. Hell now with my Tivo Roamio and it’s new update I can hit the green button once and it’ll skip them all and start right at the end of all the commercials. I get my TV with a Antenna and so pay ZERO for TV service per month!!!
If everyone was like you there would be no TV.
Re: NDR = German Gov channel
Nope. Wrong on all counts.
It is not a Government Program, even less so than the BBC would be. It is a public station incorporated under special statutes of German law. Unlike for example the PBS in the states it is financed by fees levied from every household, again under special provisions of the law.
While it is debatable how smart or fair that system is (imo it would be better to simply pay it out of taxes) it has been upheld in many court decisions.
So it has nothing to do with any balls that private stations would have to grow, they simply have no legal leg to stand on in this.
Furthermore no private channel would risk to loose their license because they sued against the government.
Licenses are handles by the German states, not the federal government.
Re: NDR = German Gov channel
this MANDATORY channels are still managed by the ocupation allies to DE-germanize the germans
To be fair
The German Gov hasn’t said a word about that and probably never will. Because if they did then Merkel would have to stand up for something and if you want to bet on something then you can have a sure outcome on Merkel. She will never ever say anything final.
I guess she learned that while the was an employee at the DDR politics (aka propaganda) bureau and I am 100% sure that her employment had nothing to do with her getting a doctorate in physics although it happened at the same time.
EU - Turkey
The EU recently paid Turkey 3-6 billion Euro(annually) to keep refugees from flooding the EU. At the moment Turkey is the ugly step child of the EU. You really don’t want it but if you refuse anything it tells you to do then it will destroy you*.
*by increasing it’s payments to ISIS(yes, they do finance ISIS. various sources of prove available even via google) and sending more refugees to the EU.
Re: EU - Turkey
A lot of countries finance ISIS, The US had to rewrite their own laws towards supporting terrorism just to make what they have been doing legal retroactively.
Were you out of the loop about the whole US government funding, training and supplying weapons to the “moderates” of ISIS to fight against Assad?
Re: Re: EU - Turkey
A lot of countries finance ISIS
And most of them are part of the same Islamic axis as Turkey – but only Turkey pretends at the same time to be a secular democracy that could join the EU one day.
Also a lot of that money only gets through because Turkey lets it.
Only Turkey actually directly supports ISIS by attacking the Kurds – who have been one of the most effective forces on the ground against ISIS.
Were you out of the loop about the whole US government funding, training and supplying weapons to the “moderates”
Well I’d say that the US would admit(at least privately) that this was a mistake* – whereas for Turkey it is actually deliberate policy.
*Unless you actually believe the whole “Obama is a closet Muslim…” conspiracy nonsense.
US is pulling military families out of Turkey right now.
geuss we don’t trust him anymore either
Re: Re:
US is pulling military families out of Turkey right now.
Do you have a source for that? No offense or anything intended just curious for future stories.
Re: Re: US is pulling military families out of Turkey right now.
Here’s one source:
https://www.rt.com/usa/337673-pentagon-turkey-evacuating-families/
Re: Re: Re:
Another source:
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/03/29/us-military-dependents-ordered-leave-turkey/82377984/
There is too much likelihood of the hot war spilling into southern Turkey, and the US Military doesn’t want soldiers there worrying about their families if attacks come.
I don’t see how Erdogan’s pursuit of critics helps the argument that Turkey should become a part of the EU, but maybe Turkey has given up on that.
Request of Techdirt
Have a contest of user submitted videos mocking Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Give out prizes.
C’mon, you know you want to…
If anyone wondered what a Trump presidency would really look like, this it.
Re: Re:
Huge amount of fun and Gollum jokes? Count me in! Although…. you might want to buy some houses around the white house because those 1000+ rooms residency takes up quite a bit of room and gold toilets aren’t cheap. Gold investment? Maybe…
Increasing Zeitbinder Botnet
Fefe had it first!
https://blog.fefe.de/?ts=a80458ff
What level is the spell “Summon German Ambassador”, and what’s the material component?
let's all laugh at the kwazy diktator-lite...
…but maybe it should be a nervous laugh with sidelong glances, because i don’t think we are that far behind…
hasn’t Emperor-to-be t-rump already shown how thin-skinned a short-fingered vulgarian can be ? ? ?
the velvet glove on the iron fist of Empire is starting to fray…
soon, it will be cold steel smacking us down, and then will we laugh at how ‘silly’ the Emperor is being in persecuting us ? ? ?
oh, how we’ll laugh…
100 lawsuits a month? That’s nothing – just wait till Trump gets into power, the US will need a whole new legal system just to keep up!
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Or, as Colbert called him, Turkish President and Elvish greeting Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Thin skin or a need to be under the spotlight with everybody talking about him?
It’s kind of catchy, honestly.
Probably because it’s build on Nena’s (remember 99 Red Balloons?) “irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann”.
“I like to move it, move it”
insane Erdogan
12 days and its at 6,657,892
““It is alleged that the first man to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong in 1969,” Erdoğan said. “In fact, Muslim space explorers reached our satellite 334 years before that, in 1635.”