Russian President Vladimir Putin during the CSTO summit in Moscow on May 16, 2022.Getty Images<\/p>\n
Russia's Swiss embassy threatened a newspaper with legal action over an image it published.<\/p>\n
The the Neue Zrcher Zeitung included an image of Putin as a clown in an article on memes.<\/p>\n
Officials said \"insults and fakes\" were beyond the limits of free speech, and threatened to report it.<\/p>\n
Russian officials threatened a Swiss newspaper with a legal action after it published an image depicting President Vladimir Putin as a clown.<\/p>\n
Zurich newspaper the Neue Zrcher Zeitung, published the piece \"Between Superheroes and Villains: The Power of Memes in the Ukraine War.\" It discussed how viral images played a part in discussion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The lead image featured Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Iron Man next Putin with a clown nose and colorful face paint.<\/p>\n
Its intent appears to have been to illustrate the type of imagery used, rather than to argue that the newspaper or its writers consider Putin to be a clown.<\/p>\n
Russia's embassy in Switzerland responded with a letter to the newspaper's editor, describing itself as \"extremely outraged\" by the image.<\/p>\n
The letter argued that freedom of speech was not an excuse to publish \"insults and fakes.\"<\/p>\n
It took special offense at the rainbow colors on Putin's face, citing his hostility to LGBTQ people.<\/p>\n
It also objected to what it called the depiction in the article of Putin as a war criminal, a common charge among Ukrainians, human-rights observers and Western officials.<\/p>\n
The message ended with a reference to Switzerland's defamation laws and said the officials \"reserve the right... to apply to the Swiss law enforcement agencies\" to take action over the image.<\/p>\n
Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n
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Russia threatens Swiss newspaper with legal action for publishing image of Putin with a clown nose - Yahoo News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russian President Vladimir Putin during the CSTO summit in Moscow on May 16, 2022.Getty Images Russia's Swiss embassy threatened a newspaper with legal action over an image it published. The the Neue Zrcher Zeitung included an image of Putin as a clown in an article on memes. Officials said \"insults and fakes\" were beyond the limits of free speech, and threatened to report it Continue reading