), Merkel said Germany would continue to protect artistic freedom.
The Turkish president himself has requested the charges, taking advantage of a German law that criminalizes insulting foreign leaders. Art and these fundamental values are valid regardless of any political problems we are discussing with each other, and that includes the refugee issue, Merkel said Tuesday, referring to a controversial deportation deal between the European Union and Turkey.
During a satirical bit in which he explained what was legal and illegal under German defamation laws, Jan Böhmermann (pictured left) read a Defamation Poem in which he called Erdogan dumb, cowardly and uptight and said the president engaged in sexual congress with various farmyard animals, and enjoyed oppressing minorities.