[Eugene Volokh] ‘Germany will abolish law against insulting foreign heads of state’

So reports a CBS News headline to an AP story:

[German] Justice Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday said Germany was abolishing a law requiring the government’s permission to allow the prosecution of anyone deemed to have insulted a foreign head of state, saying it was “outdated and unnecessary.”

Last year, the German government was put in the awkward position of having to grant a Turkish request to allow prosecutors to investigate a TV comic who wrote a crude poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Prosecutors later dropped the investigation of comic Jan Boehmermann, citing insufficient evidence that he committed any crime …

Very good to hear.