Section 129a(5) of the German Criminal Code (StGB) makes it a criminal offence to support a terrorist organisation and to recruit members or supporters for it. Mere promotion of sympathy for terrorist organisations has no longer been covered since the legislative amendment of 2002. This leaves a gap: slogans and symbols that legitimise or glorify terrorist violence – such as the call for an “intifada”, which organisations like Hamas use as a symbol of armed struggle – are barely actionable under criminal law.
WerteInitiative proposes amending the wording of Section 129a(5) StGB and adding a subsection 2 to Section 140 StGB. This would also cover propagandistic promotion of terrorist organisations or their protagonists, provided it is objectively capable of furthering their aims or their standing – today above all in videos on social media. Endorsement, glorification and justification of serious acts of terrorist violence under Sections 89a, 129a StGB would also be punishable.
Through the reference to Section 86(4) StGB, art, scholarship and reporting remain exempt. From 1976 to 2002 an identically worded provision on promoting sympathy was in force without being classified as unconstitutional – and that during a period in which the Federal Constitutional Court interpreted freedom of expression in a political context particularly broadly.
