Reeling from that whole Holocaust thing, Germany has always made a point about banning hate speech outright , because dammit, that’s not what Article 5 is all about. So aside from locking up neo-Nazis hailing Hitler, Germany also engages in the fun practice of severely restricting certain records within its borders. Like Jamaican dancehall artists whose lyrics advocate murdering homosexuals.
Sizzla, Elephant Man (pictured), Bounty Killer, Capleton, TOK, and Baby Cham all have albums on Germany’s new list of 11 mostly-blacklisted dancehall records, compiled between 2008 and last month; the list now stands at 35 records. There’s even a government organization solely responsible for coming up with this list: the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (or Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien, if you swing that way).
The BPjM told the Sunday Observer that it is illegal to advertise these albums or to sell them to minors in Germany, with additional restrictions placed on their sale and distribution. “Breach of …[the] indexing is punishable by a fine or imprisonment,” stated Corinna Bochmann, BPjM spokesperson, in response to Sunday Observer queries.
Ten of the 11 albums were not only considered “harmful to young people” but also contained violent lyrics, according to the BPjM, with lyrics that incite hatred and propagate to kill homosexuals. The BPjM indexed these albums following complaints by certain groups such as the German gay lobby. “The BPjM can only act on the request of other administrative institutions, not by itself. Once an official request has been filed, the BPjM is obliged to act,” stated Bochmann.
But because this is an industry (music), there is of course a profit angle to all of this. Or at least a social currency to be exploited. By releasing anti-gay records, these dancehall musicians are actually propping up The Gays, you see.
Ellen Köhlings, editor of German reggae magazine Riddim told the Sunday Observer that dancehall is ironically filliping the gay lobby’s agenda. “These lyrics violate German laws which gives the lobbyists legal grounds to successfully censor music and gain media exposure,” Köhlings said. “The gay lobby is looking for cheap forwards just like some artistes look for a cheap forward,” she stated.
Köhlings added that artistes could compromise by maintaining their anti-gay stance but avoid the use of violence. “At the end of the day there are much more urgent things to talk about than homophobia, and artistes should leave out, in my mind, the violent bashing of gays.”
Yeah! Just call us despicable sinners and dregs on society. But if you don’t recommend we get gunned down or shivved, hey, kumbaya.
Michelle
Good on the German government I say! Too many governments in this world state they’re all for stamping out homophobia but do next to nothing to show it allowing all kind of homophobic content to be performed in their countries and coming up with weak excuses why.
JT
So if any of those hate preachers show up in Germany, can they be jailed, too, for quoting Leviticus?
Chris
No, you can’t be jailed for quoting Leviticus, but for inciting hatred against a group: Volksverhetzung/”dashing up the people”. It’s more restrictive than the American system as far as free speech goes, but people have more rights about to their likeliness/image as well.
I applaud my country for banning that crap.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
In the U.S, we badly need Immigration reform because some countries will not accept hardened criminals back to their country, say rapists and child molesters or equally violent offenders, once they are set to be deported so they are just released back into our society. One of these countries is virulently homophobic Jamaica. Yet, a same-gender loving couple who want family re-unification are denied Equality due to America’s homophobic immmigration laws and DOMA. Germany is an exemplary society in this world today and the editor of the German Reggae magazine should see her advertisers targeted and boycotted. This is a Human Rights issue and we know how this would have turned out if it was race-based instead!
scott ny'er
yay for germany
Matthew Lucas
Wait…a guy wearing body glitter is promoting hatred of homosexuals??
gollygeegaygoy
germany says no to fascism. thank fuck.
Michael
@JT: Of course those preachers can cite Leviticus. But we all know damn well they’ll be doing it right after they’ve cut their beard, pressed their polyester pants, had ham salad for lunch with a nice shrimp cocktail and displaying their new tattoo. It’s called hypocrisy and the only use for morality most people have is in order to justify their own bias.
btw, it’s pretty sad a country which used to kill Jews is way more ahead of the USA on human rights.
hephaestion
Bravo Deutschland! If America were a civilized country we would ban albums that advocate killing innocent people, too. I am certain our founding fathers would puke if they heard the “kill the gays” lyrics of these Jamaican buffoons.
1EqualityUSA
Censoring won’t stop people from hearing it.
David Ehrenstein
No, but it can slow them up.
1EqualityUSA
We should decide what to support with our dollars, not the government. If someone had told me that I couldn’t listen to Iggy Pop, the Dead, or Bowie when I was young, I would have gotten a hold of the music somehow. Censorship is bullshit.
1EqualityUSA
Expurgators have no business in American life. Valuable quotes regarding censorship:
“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” —John F. Kennedy
“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” —Noam Chomsky
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” —Voltaire
ain
why ban album,why ban singer,i totally oppose it,this Artist dont mean that Gay should be kill,is all about music,most of this Artist dont sing about Gay anymore,Buju banton sing about Gay boom bye bye, that was back in 1991 since that he have not sing about gay,buts still now Gay caimpainer want him to be ban,that is unjust,he even make it clear that he will not sing about Gay,people need there music
Thom
I don’t know how I feel about this. I’m not for the censoring of any type of speech. It would be better that the people reject it themselves for it being hateful instead of having it banned.
delurker
Stupid @David Ehrenstein: Er, no it won’t. Kids today don’t even purchase music, movies, etc. They illegally download everything. They can get this music if they want to.
delurker
I don’t know why it says “stupid” there…
Ogre Magi
Elephant Man? He looks more like elephant shit!
Max
@ain:
Banton still performs his “boom bye bye” song at concerts and stated he had no intention to stop.
No, singing about killing aminority is not about melody or rhythm, it’s about spewing hateful bullshit and inciting violence.
@EqualityUSA1
You do realize what you’re talking abut happened 60 years ago?!
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
@Max: Banton is not performing his “Boom Bye Bye” song at concerts; he sings it to himself in the prison cell.
1EqualityUSA
In the shower room.
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
Before we Americans demand that the rest of the world bide by the rules of government established by our Constitution, let me make the following points: We ourselves have amended our Constitution 27 times in our on-going attempt to create a more perfect union. Some of the Amendments were additions while some revise previous sections. Importantly, our Constitution ALLOWED/PROVIDED FOR/PROTECTED, until amended, slavery, undervaluing human dignity of native Americans, and women’s suffrage. Also, as a nation, we invaded the personal privacy and individual determination, until repealed, the right to drink alcohol. We point is that those “wise old white men” didn’t get everything right, and even hundred of thousands of Americans died (Civil War) fixing their fuck ups.
Also, under the Constitution, as defined by the Supreme Court, the 1st Amendment does not provide the freedom to endanger others. The Court, in an opinion written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, opined that in cases of “a clear and present danger” supersedes the absolute freedom of speech. Holmes wrote “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.” The case ruled that is was illegal for protesters against World War I could not distribute posters critical of the government organizing a draft.
That decision was later refined, and overturned the facts of the case, ie., protesters do have the right to distribute information against a government action. In overturning the decision, the Court, though maintained the limited the scope of banned speech to that which would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action such as a riot.
Here in the US, the line between freedom of speech and incitement of lawlessness has moved and shifted over time. Let us absorb Germany’s action and see whether that action sufficiently protects freedom of speech AND protects the public from imminent danger. Speech and safety are both important goals and when conflict between the two occur, it requires us to take a balanced view.
1EqualityUSA
#21–Mike, The “demand” is the ideal that will take place, without force. To love unconditionally seems to be an impossibility. Unless we will it to happen. Can love even push through the cracks? Worldly politics choke the spirit. True Christians know that to bow before politicians is forsaking The Father. To suggest that our community needs to do just that, in order to be legally recognized in our own country is not only demeaning, but illegal. Those who were born this way know that harm comes to those who put all of their eggs in a political basket. The TDSRYT places us at the mercy of other people, with other motives. Like seaweed swaying slowly, the gay community gets pulled into a political machine. The end product cannot be a good one. True Christians would recognize the danger. The freedom of religion relies upon the concept of freedom. Any power that tugs on one’s freedoms sets the stage for future tugging. Only, in the future, the Church may be the ones in danger. Better to love unconditionally and set the stage for winning more hearts, because politics is a dead end. Humans with eyes to see and ears to hear, a spiritual sense, will be more impressed by a Church who sees danger to its own. Oppression is flawed wisdom. Oppression needs to be seen as impending doom to the Gospel, not a means to get needs met in political spheres. The ideal is always there. Martin Luther King said for us to keep our eyes on the prize. Wallowing in politics and making back room deals with Senators, in order to oppress other Americans, is not keeping ones eyes on the prize. Where the Church will stand convicted is that they taught the Word in a hateful way.
“Pascal said there were two things that frightened him. One was his own heart; the other, the silence of the eternal spheres. Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher, held that the two things that awed him were the moral law within his breast and the starry firmament above. There has always been a tendency in literature to put these two together, and with certain justice, for only a Power great enough to control the heavens could ever solace the individual heart.”—Fulton Sheen
True Christians know the value of freedom.
sal(the original)
amen germany
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
@No. 22 1EqualityUSA
I don’t understand your post.
My post was regarding commentary about the scope of the First Amendment relative to freedom of speech vs. public safety laws. Your post is about freedom of religion?
I can comment that I did not endorse any sort of concept of a world governance; I wrote that the US should study the German concept of freedom of speech before we go blasting away at others’ attempt to create their own form of a more perfect union.
1EqualityUSA
Mike, Your last paragraph, I suppose you are right. Sorry to have gotten off kilter. I have a ton of thoughts this morning, none of which applied to your post. Who’s mixing cleaning supplies?
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
@No. 25 1EqualityUSA
Whew … on many issues we tend to agree on the salient points. When we don’t, I regularly rely on your posts to see if I need to rethink my position(s). This one had me confused, so glad it was just cleaning supplies. Do you long for the days of original formula White Out too? …lol….
1EqualityUSA
Friends don’t let friends think and clean at the same time. Solvents, a mystery for the ages.
Jadis
Germany learned something from Hitler. Too bad nobody else did.