Campaigning gone bad. Very bad.
Upfront: just a short post that is above all for all Germans who might read this, but what probably is behind all this is simply the fact that there are a lot of elections coming up in Germany this year. As everybody knows this is the time where politicians try to get as much media coverage as possible and do not always do things that are in the best interest of anyone but themselves.
That is annoying but something we have (sadly) gotten used to. Still there lately was one thing I found to be particularly disturbing, which is why I’d like to draw your attention to it.
Our dear minister of family affairs has gotten a lot of press coverage by announcing to get tough on child abuse, above all explicit material found on the internet. A very noble cause that I fully support. The big problem I have is that the one means she/the ministry is trying to install is not only utterly useless to the cause but also against the German “Grundgesetz” (constitution), as it means simple censorship. If you read German and want to know more, I recommend you have a look at this article.
Abusing a noble cause for campaigning and weakening democracy
One small thing that everybody can do is sign this online petition against the current version of the law, in the hope that it will not pass and there will be measures taken that actually help. If you’re German, please have a look at the petition and consider signing it – it won’t take more than three minutes of your time.
If you’re interested in even more information, there are two more articles (again in German) I found interesting one interview on the issue and an article about how parts of our government do their PR.
And finally, more there also is more satirical imagery available.