Facebook Content Leads to Controversial Croatian Arrests

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ZAGREB, Croatia - Recent arrests based on the content posted by members of the online social-networking website Facebook have sparked a flurry of criticism, debate and response about freedom of political expression in Croatia.  Last Friday the creator of the Facebook group "I bet I can find 5,000 Facebookers who dislike Sanader" was detained for three hours while he was questioned and his house and computer were searched.  On Tuesday police detained organizers of anti-government rallies - including the protest coordinator living in Zadar and an activist posting protest posters in Zagreb - which have been organized via Facebook to take place on December 5 in several Croatian towns and the capital city. 

Police and the Prime Minister, while standing behind the legality of the Facebook arrests, have since apologized.  They claim, however, that the arrest in Dubrovnik of Niksa Klesak (the creator of "I bet I can find 5,000 Facebookers who dislike Sanader") was based on pictures posted on the groups website of PM Sanader wearing a Nazi uniform.  In Croatia it is illegal to display Nazi and fascist symbols.

“Everything that’s going on on Facebook with that Nazi insignia, it’s not aimed against the prime minister, but against democracy in Croatia,“ said Sanader.  "There is no satire or games with swastikas or Nazi and Ustasha insignia."  He also stated that everyone had the right to express their opinions via the internet, but that propagation of a totalitarian system could not be tolerated, “particularly when it comes from any political party in Croatia, especially those who call themselves anti-fascists." 

The man arrested in the Zagreb for posting the posters which had been distributed online via the Facebook group was charged with disturbing the peace, under an old law from 1990 which applied to the then-Yugoslavia.

Zoran Milanović, current leader of the Social Democrat party to which the recently arrested individuals belong, characterized the internet images as satirical.  Klecak said he is convinced his case was "politically motivated."  Damir Kajin, a fellow party member and Croatian politician, said the arrests were "a message to those who found a new way of political fighting on the Internet."  Political analyist Jelena Lovric offered her opinion that the case exposed officials' fear of the Web: the government "cannot influence Internet, and that deeply frightens it." 

For more information, please see:

BalkanInsight.com - Croatian Police Sorry for 'Facebook Arrest' - 4 December 2008

BBC - Croatia web arrests spark furore - 3 December 2008

B92 - Sanader: Nazi pics "attack on democracy" - 2 December 2008

Reuters - Police turn on anti-government Facebookers? - 2 December 2008

International Herald Tribune - Facebook group creator detained by Croatian police - 1 December 2008

Javno - Police Work is Hard in Internet Sea of Information - 30 November 2008