German government officials were meeting on Monday to decide how to respond to a request from Turkey to prosecute a German comedian who recited an explicit poem that insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on public television.
Officials from the Foreign and Justice Ministries were meeting in Berlin to discuss a diplomatic notice sent by the Turkish ambassador to the Foreign Ministry on Sunday, demanding a criminal probe into comedian and talk show host Jan Boehmermann.
Boehmermann fuelled a diplomatic spat between Germany and Turkey late last month when he read a poem on the air lampooning the Turkish head of state as "a professional idiot, cowardly and uptight" and accusing him of sexually explicit acts with animals.
In the controversial broadcast, Boehmermann expresses support for another satirical TV programme, broadcaster NDR's Extra 3, which made fun of Erdogan's authoritarian policies in its March 17 show and prompted Ankara to summon its German ambassador.
Public prosecutors in Mainz have already launched a preliminary investigation into Boehmermann and public broadcaster ZDF to determine whether the poem violates a law that criminalizes insults against representatives of foreign states.
