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RSS Feed Panorama31. 12. 11. - 09:00
Heard the one about the Austrian blonde?
A new law that makes jokes about blondes illegal comes into force in Austria from 1 January as part of a tough new package of anti-terrorism measures.
Lawmakers argued that blond-haired people could feel themselves marginalised and end up resorting to terrorist measures to get revenge on a society that rejected them if the jokes were not banned.
The new law was originally aimed to make it easier for authorities to tackle those promoting extremist standpoints verging on promoting terrorism but by the time it was approved had been extended to include what was previously only regarded as questionable humour.
Also banned uner the new paragraphs 278 and 283 of the Austrian penal code are jokes about people from the Burgenland region of Austria, the agricultural region in the far east of the country where locals are often the subject of anecdotes along the lines of jokes about Irishman in the UK.
Charges for serious breaches can be up to 2 years for repeat offenders.
Austrian newspaper the Krone quoted the president of the Austrian Lawyers Association Rupert Wolff as saying: "From January certain jokes about blondes and people from Burgenland can be punishable in a court of law."
Wolff added: "This law is an over reaction. It is just not neccesary in Austria. It is in any case an invasion of the private sphere of Austrians. it might be that something someone says is in bad taste or just plain stupid, but it should be allowed anyway and not banned by the law."
In Hungary recently blonde women staged a protest march in the capital Budapest demanding fairer treatment of blondes, with Hungarian blonde rights spokeswoman Zsuzsa Kovacs saying: "Blondes really do face discrimination at work, on the street. People are banned by law from discriminatiing against Jews, or blacks, so why not grant blondes the same protection."
And in Romania a Romanian model who set up a new political party to fight for models’ rights – including jail terms for anyone making dumb blonde jokes - welcomed the Austrian move.
Sanziana Buruiana, 27, said her Romanian Models Party also wants to make it law that anyone making dumb blonde jokes will be fined or even sent to jail.
But a planned march in Russia by hundreds of blondes to protest against anti-blonde discrimination was a flop after only a tenth of those who promised to be there were organised enough to make it.
Organisers of the protest in the Russian town of Nizhniy Novgorod admitted the rest had given excuses ranging from getting lost to getting the time wrong, not finding a parking place and in one case even deciding to go shopping instead.
In the end only 20 women turned up instead of the 200 who had registered to attend.
The blondes who did take part held banners with slogans such as "Blonde hair is a gift".
They complained they were discriminated against by men and other women at work and want legislation brought in to stop blonde jokes being told in public.
Anna Zaitseva, who organised the protest, said: "All we wanted was the same rights for blonde girls as for everyone else."
Austrian Times
Tag cloud:
gift rsquo dumb banned jokes Austria protection complained discrimination Russia grant protest welcomed Austrian Wolff Burgenland Romania blonde region terrorism
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David Rogers wrote on 02. 01. 2012 from Vienna about "Heard the one about the A..."
They only used it in the printed edition - it was Krone on 30 December - page 18 - half a page. Krone has a circulation of 4 million - its very well known.
Reply
Curious George wrote on 02. 01. 2012 from Linz about "Heard the one about the A..."
Please add link to verify this news. I can not find anything from other newspapers or govermental pages.
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