YouTube videos have — as surprising as it seems — triggered a governmental showdown in Croatia’s parliament.

It started when Croatia’s Interior Minister appeared in these home-made videos, where his speeches are set to music like the James Bond theme or The Godfather, and interspersed with title cards. One observer notes the clips “were not doctored,” and says the remarks were “funny (but not insulting).”

Friday the Internet Minister, Ivica Kirin, blamed Croatia’s minority party, the SDP. He reportedly said the clip “was funny at first and then we discovered on the server that it had been sent from SDP. They can rest assured that…we will bring this to public view in our campaign.”

We discovered? According to local newspapers, the opposition campaign had some questions. “Who signed the warrant and over suspicion in what criminal act?” Were their privacy rights being violated by investigating their YouTube identities? The SDP demanded an explanation of the remarks before Parliament, and when Kirin’s schedule didn’t permit it, the entire SDP party walked out of Parliament — about 22% of all legislators. They demanded his resignation, and in a press conference said “Kirin’s statement was a publicly spoken direct threat… The Minister abused his position to settle the score with his political opponents.”

Hours later Kirin broached the controversy — saying he’d been misquoted. It was a reporter in the same room who suggested his opponents uploaded the video, he told newspapers. And as far as the supposed investigation, “it has never occurred to me to use such things either. In fact, that is not even the job of the Minister or the [Ministry of the Interior]”

“Why would I do that?” he reitereated. “There are no elements of any act that the police usually deals with. Some kind of affair is trying to be made out of this… I think all of this is part of the election campaign.”

Saturday the Secretary General of another party supported the call for Kirin’s resignation, saying a physical attack on a party member was covered up by Kirin’s police. The YouTube controversy only refined his position, according to a local newspaper, who offered a succinct summary of his position.

“With all the criminals in the country, [Kirin] deals with the investigation on who has been publishing his recordings online.”

Related:

Entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2007 at 6:50 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by David Cassel.
Stumble It!