{"id":353325,"date":"2018-03-22T09:45:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T08:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/man-who-made-dog-perform-nazi-salutes-found-guilty-of-hate-crime-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2018-03-22T09:45:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T08:45:54","slug":"man-who-made-dog-perform-nazi-salutes-found-guilty-of-hate-crime-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/man-who-made-dog-perform-nazi-salutes-found-guilty-of-hate-crime-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Man who made dog perform \u2018Nazi salutes\u2019 found guilty of hate crime \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        A man who uploaded a YouTube video of his girlfriend\u2019s dog performing \u201cNazi salutes\u201d has been convicted of hate crime. Mark Meechan, 30, was found guilty of posting an \u201canti-Semitic and racist\u201d video.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Meechan, of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, uploaded a video of his girlfriend\u2019s pug, named Buddha, responding to statements including <em>\u201cgas the Jews\u201d<\/em> and<em> \u201csieg heil.&#8221;<\/em> The video was viewed more than three million times after being uploaded two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Meechan, known on YouTube as &#8216;Count Dankula&#8217;, was found guilty of breaching the 2003 Communications Act but denied any wrongdoing. However, Sheriff Derek O\u2019Carroll rejected his defense at Airdrie Sheriff Court and said: <em>\u201cIn my view, it is a reasonable conclusion that the video is grossly offensive.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jKa8wOUcfCM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe description of the video as humorous is no magic wand. This court has taken the freedom of expression into consideration, but the right to freedom of expression also comes with responsibility.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/403017-nazi-pug-hitler-salute\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2017.09\/thumbnail\/59b7a130fc7e93ca5d8b4567.png\" alt=\"\u00a9 Count Dankula\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>&#8220;The accused is quite obviously an intelligent and articulate man. The accused knew that the material was offensive and knew why it was offensive. Despite that, the accused made a video containing anti-Semitic content and he would have known it was grossly offensive to many Jewish people.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ross Brown, defending, claimed that Meechan was merely seeking to annoy his girlfriend. He added: <em>&#8220;I can see that the video may not be to everyone\u2019s taste. Others may be able to see the comedic or satirical element to it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>After the verdict, comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted: <em>\u201cIf you don\u2019t believe in a person\u2019s right to say things that you might find \u2018grossly offensive,\u2019 then you don\u2019t believe in freedom of speech.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There is no right to freedom of speech in the UK, with laws against hate speech and libel. Despite this, the right to free speech is supported by the European Convention of Human Rights, a treaty the UK looks set to leave behind following Brexit.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/398340-nazi-dog-hitler-salute\/\">READ MORE: Man who trained dog to make Nazi salute denies hate crime (VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Meechan\u2019s sentencing has been deferred.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you like this story, share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/421885-nazi-salute-pug-guilty\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man who uploaded a YouTube video of his girlfriend\u2019s dog performing \u201cNazi salutes\u201d has been convicted of hate crime. Mark Meechan, 30, was found guilty of posting an \u201canti-Semitic and racist\u201d video. Meechan, of Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, uploaded a video of his girlfriend\u2019s pug, named Buddha, responding to statements including \u201cgas the Jews\u201d and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-353325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}