Diss your final exams, spend a year in jail

“Life should not be a prison because of an exam,” go the lyrics. “I have gotten lost/You have ruined my future/ I am going to tell you one thing:/ Shove that exam…’

These lyrics are from a Turkish punk song. Anarchy in the UK, it is not; but it is still enough to put those who sang it before the courts, facing one and a half years in jail for the now familiar but always ridiculous crime of “insulting Turkishness”. The reason is that the exam being criticised here is the national university entrance exam. It is, if anyone is wondering, three hours and multiple choice.

Via Reason, who also add: “So the whole case is a tiresome and wasteful use of government resources—if Turkey keeps it up, its prospects for EU membership look better than ever.”