Appendix 6 - International Music Council

e exhibited publicly in retail, and only sold to customers above the age of 18. They cannot
be imported nor exported and cannot be promoted or advertised in media that are accessible
to minors. This sort of regulation applies to almost all member states of the EU.
In Germany (and Austria) authorities especially mind music being employed for sedition as
well as insulting behaviour against minorities and religious communities. The denegation
of Holocaust is a criminal offence, certain national socialist songs are forbidden.
There have been several police actions against people suspected of posting neo-Nazi music
files on the internet. Publishing Nazi slogans and materials are crimes punishable by
imprisonment under German law.
Some artists publishing on the Hip-hop-Label "Aggro" have been forbidden.
Greece
There is no purposely or intended oppression of musical diversity by the government or
the
Orthodox Church in Greece. Minority issues are still likely to produce conflicts. Until today
some of the hard censorship laws of former (totalitarian) times still exist, but are hardly
applied.
In 2005, a private television station censored the performance of the known rebetiko-singer
Agathonas Jakovidhis by covering "morally dubious" words in the lyrics that were about
the smuggling of drugs with whistling sounds.
That caused very critical reactions in the
daily press, people felt reminded of the times of the Junta (1967-1974), where songs about
drugs were forbidden. (report of Daniel Koglin)
Spain
In general, freedom of expression seems to be guaranteed in Spain, though there are reports
about Basque musicians, film makers and Basque media being
subject to increasing
censorship. Basque musicians
had to cancel concerts due to pressure by the Association for
the Victims of
Terrorism (AVT) that complained about the lyrics of some song humiliating
the victims. (http://www.freemuse.org/sw15505.asp) The famous musician Manu Chao
cancelled a show in 2003 because he didn't want to exclude a Basque member of his band
with an ETA history. (http://www.freemuse.org/sw5329.asp)
Sweden
No reports about violation of Human Rights. Swedish authority is increasingly aware of the
fact that there are a lot of music producers producing, selling and exporting neo-Nazi
music, but bans contradict the freedom of opinion.
Turkey
The situation of Human Rights in Turkey is disputable. Despite several reforms there are
reports about a broad range of restrictions to the freedom of expression and the freedom of
press. Government, society and justice still have a tense relation to pluralistic diversity of
opinion. The new penal law allows sanctions, e.g. article 305 bans activities against basic
national interests,
which can be prosecuted with 3 to 10 years of prison. Examples for this
kind of activities are the expression of the claim for the pullout of Turkish troops from
Cyprus, the diffusion of the idea of genocide on the Armenians and the violation of the
memory of Atatürk. This law does in fact censor a critical debate about Turkish history.
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