Some people just can’t take criticism. We
mean they really, really can’t take
criticism. And when you’re a world
leader, you don’t have to.
When the king of Bahrain recently upped
the penalty for anyone found guilty of
“offending” him, it reminded us just how
many countries count defaming their
head of state a crime. It may be par for
the course in the United States, but in
dozens of nations around the world,
badmouthing your commander-in-chief
will earn you fines, imprisonment or even
a flogging.
Here are 11 countries where it's an
offense to offend, and one where it soon
might be. While there are many more
countries where insulting the leader is
illegal on the books, the laws aren't always
put into practice. Not so for the countries
below, which have all prosecuted
offending citizens in recent years.
1. Azerbaijan: Up to two years'
"corrective labor"
(Tofik Babayev/AFP/Getty Images)
These men are risking "a fine of 500 to
1,000 nominal financial units, or
corrective labor for up to two years, or
imprisonment for the same term" if the
Azerbaijaini authorities judge that this
poster of theirs is "humiliating" to the
honor and dignity of President Ilham
Aliyev. (No, we're not sure exactly what
"corrective labor" is either, but you can
bet you wouldn't enjoy it.) Even worse
news for them, given that they're
comparing him to Charlie Chaplin as
Adolf Hitler, is that "Where such acts are
connected to accusations of the
commission of a serious crime, these are
punishable by imprisonment from two to
five years."
2. Lebanon: Up to $66,400 in fines
(Jewel Samand/AFP/Getty Images)
Lebanon's laws forbid the publication of
material that "undermines the dignity of
the president of the republic," which is
punishable by a minimum of one month
and a maximum of two years in prison,
and/or a fine between 50 million and 100
million Lebanese pounds ($33,200-
$66,400). You might assume that
"publication" means the law applies only
to newspapers, and perhaps it did when
the code was written in 1977, but Lebanon
has decided its 30-something year old law
also extends to new media. Just last
month, for instance, a Lebanese web
developer was sentenced to two months in
prison for insulting President Michel
Sleiman on Twitter, when he tweeted that
the head of state was "politically
castrated."
3. Venezuela: Up to 40 months in
prison
(Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)
Under Venezuelan law, it's a crime to
offend, "in writing, speech or by any other
means" (interpretative dance?), the
elected or acting president. If you're found
guilty, you'll get six to 30 months'
imprisonment if the offense is considered
serious, and three to 15 months if it's
considered minor. Commit the offense in
public and you'll see your sentence upped
by one third. The legislation received
some controversial outings under the late
Hugo Chavez, who critics accused of
borrowing the Castro brothers' approach
to dissent in Cuba (where "contempt" of
almost any public official is a crime, and
insulting the president could earn you up
to three years in prison).
4. Poland: Up to three years in
prison
(Jewel Samand/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Barack Obama might want
to watch his tongue when he visits Polish
President Bronislaw Komorowski:
publicly insulting the Polish president is
punishable by up to three years in prison.
But the same warning goes for anyone
tempted to take a swing at Poland's
foreign guests. You see, the country's
penal code extends the same privilege to
any foreign head of state while he or she is
on Polish soil. So, for example, during a
state visit by Russian President Vladimir
Putin in 2005, Polish police arrested 28
protesters demonstrating against him. It
may not be the world's harshest insult
law, but it's certainly had one of the
weirdest applications: in 2006,
prosecutors reportedly charged a 45-year-
old man with "contempt for the office of
the head of state" after he, ahem, loudly
passed gas at the mention of Poland's
then-president.
5. Turkey: Up to four years in prison
(Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)
Turkey has some pretty stringent insult
laws, and it isn't afraid to use them. The
penal code states that "a person who
defames the president of the republic shall
be imprisoned for a term of one to four
years," with the sentence to be increased
by a sixth if the offense is committed in
public. That goes even if the president has
been dead for 75 years: there's a special
law on crimes against Turkey's founding
father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, which
states that "Anyone who publicly insults
or curses [his] memory... shall be
imprisoned with a sentence of between
one and three years."
6. The Netherlands: Up to five years
in prison
(Martijn Beekman/AFP/Getty Images)
That's right, even liberal little
Netherlands has laws to protect its rulers'
honor. Intentionally insulting the
monarch could earn you up to five years'
imprisonment or a fine, while the same
offense against the monarch's spouse, the
heir apparent, the heir apparent's spouse
or the regent carries up to four years
behind bars. And these laws don't just sit
gathering dust in the statute books, by the
way: in 2007, two people were arrested
for separately calling the then Queen
Beatrix a "LovePeddler," while in 2012 another
two individuals found themselves with
short prison sentences for making
statements judged offensive to her
dignity.
7. Cameroon: Up to $42,260 in fines
(Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images)
Several African countries have laws
against "sedition" (read: saying stuff your
ruler doesn't like) left over from times
colonial, and continue to make
enthusiastic use of them. We're singling
out Cameroon for the chilling reason that,
per the penal code, truth is not a defense.
In other words, all the bad things you're
saying about President Paul Biya may very
well be accurate; but that doesn't mean
they won't earn you one to five years
imprisonment and/or a fine of 20,000 to
20 million CFA francs ($42-$42,260).
And while there may be no specific law
against it, you definitely want to refrain
from saying too much about the
president's wife: one author who wrote a
book about the thrillingly-haired Chantal
Biya (pictured with her husband, above)
found himself sentenced in 2010 to two
years' imprisonment after insult charges
were filed against him by the
Cameroonian state.
8. Bahrain: Up to seven years in
prison
(Feng Li/Getty Images)
Time was, you could insult the emir of
Bahrain and get a simple jail term. It was
a crime, sure, but no minimum or
maximum punishment was set. As of last
month, anyone who publicly offends the
kingdom's monarch, flag or national
emblem is looking at "a punishment of
imprisonment for a period of no less than
one year and no more than seven years
and a fine of no less than 1,000 Bahraini
dinars [$2,650] and no more than 10,000
Bahraini dinars [$26,500]." Doing so in
the presence of King Hamad bin Isa Al
Khalifa himself, according to Bahrain's
official news agency, will be considered
"aggravated circumstances" and could
presumably lead to worse.
9. Kuwait: Permanent exile
(Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP/Getty Images)
If Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah looks
shocked at what you just said, it's because
he's "immune and inviolable" and any
criticism of him is illegal. It says so right
there in the Kuwaiti constitution. If you're
found guilty of disregarding this precept
— and several people have been in recent
memory — you face up to five years in
prison and even, in one case in January
2014, permanent exile. Meanwhile any
publication that prints content
unfavorable to the emir, or even
attributes a quote to him without first
obtaining written authorization, is liable
for a fine of between 5,000 and 20,000
dinars (approximately $17,800-$71,100).
10. Thailand: Up to 15 years in
prison
(Ed Wray/Getty Images)
We have a feeling Kuwait's royal family
would get on rather well with Thailand's.
Just like the Kuwaiti emir, the Thai
monarch is inherently infallible: "The
King shall be enthroned in a position of
revered worship and shall not be
violated," states the country's
constitution. "No person shall expose the
King to any sort of accusation or action."
Anyone who forgets that, and dares
to defame, insult or threaten the king, his
queen, the heir apparent or the regent
"shall be punished with imprisonment of
three to 15 years." So says the criminal
code. In practical terms, any commentary
on the royal family that is less than
glowing can invite charges and lengthy
prison terms. According to a Supreme
Court ruling in 2013, the same
punishments apply to anyone found to be
insulting any Thai monarch, evxer, whether
they're alive to hear you or not.
11. Iran: 74 lashes
(Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)
Iran reserves its harshest penalty — death
— for those who insult the Prophet
Mohammed, but the punishment for
speaking ill of its political leaders is
hardly a slap on the wrist. More like
several slaps, on the back and with a whip.
According to the penal code: "Anyone who
insults any of the leaders of the three
branches of government, presidential
deputies, ministers, any of the members of
Parliament, or any ministry staff, or any
other state employees, due to their duties,
shall be punished by imprisonment of
three to six months, flogging (74 lashes)
or a fine." And you'd better believe they
mean it. Just ask Maziar Bahari, a
journalist for Newsweek who was
sentenced in May 2010 to 13 and a half
years in prison and 74 lashes for, among
other charges, insulting Iran's supreme
religious leader and its president. Bahari
had already left Iran and thus escaped his
sentence; not so Peyman Aref, an Iranian
student found guilty of writing an
"insulting" letter to then-President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in March 2010.
He was jailed for a year and, just hours
before his release, flogged 74 times.
12. Indonesia: Up to five years in
prison?
(Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
Let us be clear: you are now free to insult
the president of Indonesia with impunity.
(Or at least, no less impunity than for
insulting anyone else in Indonesia, which
isn't actually much impunity.) The article
in the criminal code that specifically
outlawed "intentional insult of the
president or vice president" — formerly
punishable by up to six years'
imprisonment — was declared
unconstitutional and abolished in 2006.
However, the government has proposed
revising the code yet again, including
restoring the ban on dissing the head of
state. If the draft is approved by
legislators, who are debating it right now,
an insult against President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono could get you up to
five years in prison.
www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/world-leaders/140310/insult-world-leader-crime-punishment

On Nairaland---
if you insult Jonathan you get 50likes and above for punishment

For Mama Peace you get 100likes and still counting

I LOVE THIS LAWFUL SITE

In Nigeria, the leaders be like 'continue insulting we will continue our stealing'. They no send the insult or the dying. Things are changing for +ve sha!

If it's done in nigeria people like barcanista, omenka, berem, koboko, LRNZH, oduastates, Unibenstudent, holatin, ngeneukwenu, et all will be in a special room in kirikiri by now

I can't remember when I insulted His Excellency The Outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan

12. Akwa Ibom State. Nigeria.
Fine: Death and unlawful imprisonment of kin.

Odudu Ukpanah still languishes in prison eight [8] months on for his father's constant criticism of Akpabio's government. In March 2014 his father was assassinated by unknown gunmen and the crime pinned on him.
Several efforts to expedite his release have been met with aggression and activists spreading word of his imprisonment constantly threatened with death by the governor.

okiezman:
If it's done in nigeria people like barcanista, omenka, berem, koboko, LRNZH, oduastates, Unibenstudent, holatin, ngeneukwenu, et all will be in a special room in kirikiri by now

pls check d dictionary for criticism and insult
but wait what happen if a person sent to prison for insulting a President continue insulting the president in prison

barcanista:
I can't remember when I insulted His Excellency The Outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan

I just pray you won't die of heart attack on February 14th

holatin:
pls check d dictionary for criticism and insult
but wait what happen if a person sent to prison for insulting a President continue insulting the president in prison

If you enter prison in nigeria you will understand the need to apologise