Kazakhstan shuts down Borat's website
The government of Kazakhstan has pulled the plug on Borat's website.
Kazakh authorities have been angered by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's satirical portrayal of a boorish, sexist and racist Kazakh television reporter, a character he calls Borat.
A government-appointed organization that regulates websites that end in the .kz domain name for Kazakhstan confirmed on Tuesday it had suspended Cohen's site, www.borat.kz.
The Cambridge University-educated Cohencreated several offensive characters, including Borat,on his cable TV program Da Ali G Show.
Kazahkstanâs foreign ministry had threatened to sue Cohen after objecting to statements he made during his recent stint hosting the MTV Europe Music Awards.
In that show, Borat described shooting dogs for fun and said his wife could not leave Kazakhstan as she was a woman.
Cohen responded sarcastically to threats of legal action in a video that he posted on the website. Playing Borat, he said: "I have no connection to Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's position to sue this Jew." Cohen is Jewish.
He continued: "Please, captain of industry, I invite you to come to Kazakhstan, where we have incredible natural resources, hard working labour and some of the cleanest prostitutes in all of Central Asia."
Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies, said the site had been shut down because it broke new rules that all .kz sites should maintain two computer servers in Kazakhstan. The site also had registered false names for its administrators, he said.
"We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name,"Isin told Reuters. "He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains."