BBC NEWS | Europe | Pope satirist convicted in Poland

Wow. Here’s cause to celebrate the US Bill of Rights, and specifically, the http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am1 First Amendment. At least this fine looks to be more of a slap on the wrist than any real punishment. Imagine the run on the courts if the US were to implement laws against “insulting a head of state”? Yeesh.

One of Poland’s best known newspaper editors has been fined $6,500 (£3,457) for ridiculing Pope John Paul II.

A court in Warsaw found Jerzy Urban guilty of insulting a head of state by writing a satirical article on the eve of the pontiff’s 2002 visit to Poland.

In his article, titled Walking Sadomasochism, Mr Urban referred to the Pope’s frailty, describing him as “the Brezhnev of the Vatican” and an “impotent old man”.