Czech president becomes viral video star—for pocketing a pen

By {/%BYLINE%} {%AUTHOR%}Michael Sebastian{/%AUTHOR%} {%TITLE%}Czech president becomes viral video star—for pocketing a pen{/%TITLE%} {%ALTERNATIVEURL%}{/%ALTERNATIVEURL%} {%IMAGE%}/Resource.ashx?sn=penpocket{/%IMAGE%} {%ROLE%}87d65c27-6e78-4e5c-b423-78d47d4f2768{/%ROLE%} {%KICKER%}Media Relations{/%KICKER%} {%CATEGORIESID%}9b04de1d-f7bc-4de7-842e-c9c833ff24e9{/%CATEGORIESID%} {%CAPTION%}Versions of this clip have been viewed over 1 million times, inspired a Facebook campaign in the Czech Republic. In the U.S., this could get a president impeached.{/%CAPTION%} {%BODYCOPY%}Imagine the firestorm that would occur if this happened in the United States. On Sunday, Czech television broadcast a clip of President Vaclav Klaus meeting with Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, in which the European leader discreetly removes a pen from a case, pockets it. The clip has been viewed more than 1 million times over various Web properties, reports The Guardian. A Facebook campaign started in the Czech Republic; people are asked to send Klaus pens on May 2 “as the president obviously has nothing to write with,” the Facebook group says. The reaction from Klaus (via The Guardian): “All I have to say is, it is not a pen but just a stylus,” Klaus himself said on Tuesday, adding that he takes things all the time. He said he had a pen from a NATO summit in October, a notepad from the Latvian parliament. “It is what people do regularly. They keep notepads, pens from such events,” he said. In America’s highly charged partisan environment, an incident like this is liable to get a president impeached. Here’s the clip: {/%BODYCOPY%} {%ID%}7899{/%ID%} {%DATAID%}d020285d-96e2-476b-bb34-479dbe34b708{/%DATAID%} {%CanonicalUrl%}{/%CanonicalUrl%} {%PUBLISHDATE%}4/13/2011 4:00:58 AM{/%PUBLISHDATE%} {%LINK%}https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/7899.aspx{/%LINK%} {%BYLINE%}
April 13, 2011