Borat's Homeland Faulted for Keeping the Man Down
Apparently the U.S. government appreciated Borat Sagdiyev's vocal support for its war of terror.
In its annual report on international human rights practices, the U.S. State Department took Kazakhstan to task for its government's limitations on free speech and other violations, citing as an example the decision to shut down the satirical Website created by Sacha Baron Cohen to further ingratiate his mustachioed alter ego into the pop-culture lexicon.
Kazakh officials have been wary of Borat since his inception on British television in 2000 (he didn't become Borat Sagdiyev until 2003) due to the bogus journalist's characterization of his homeland as virulently anti-Semitic, homophobic, misogynistic and a variety of other unflattering -ic adjectives.
In 2005, with the feature film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on the horizon, the government took control of the registration of all .kz Internet domains and duly withdrew Cohen's permission to use that domain for his Borat site, www.borat.kz, deeming its content offensive and threatening to sue Cohen for defamation.
Prompting Borat to assure his country that he fully supported the "government's decision to sue this Jew," of course.
"The government limited individuals' ability to criticize the country's leadership, and regional leaders attempted to limit local media outlets' criticism of them," read the U.S. report, released Tuesday by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The document also listed instances of the Kazakh government monitoring its citizens' email and Internet activity, blocking or hindering access to Websites critical of the country's administration and funneling nationalistic messages into chat rooms.
"Observers criticized the registration process as unduly restrictive and vulnerable to abuse," the report stated. "The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Representative on Freedom of the Media asked the government to withdraw these regulations."
Cohen's domain privileges were revoked anyway.
In October, however, shortly before Borat hit theaters, Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliyev extended an invitation to Cohen to visit the oil-rich Central Asian nation and get a load of all the freedom and equality it had to offer.
"We must have a sense of humor and respect other people's freedom of creativity," Aliyev said. "It's useless to offend an artist and threaten to sue him. It will only further damage the country's reputation and make Borat even more popular."
The former Soviet republic never filed a defamation suit, Borat went on to gross $254 million worldwide and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev—whose government has presided over an increase in censorship, arbitrary arrests, judicial corruption and other offenses, according to the U.S. report—eventually told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he did, in fact, get what Cohen was trying to do.
As Cohen told Rolling Stone last year, his raison d'etre was not to slander Kazakhstan, but to poke fun at anyone actually capable of believing that the country used to make gay people wear blue hats and that the national age of consent is now eight years old (since the progressive reforms, that is).
Borat, which came out Tuesday on DVD, replete with five deleted scenes—Borat getting a massage, anyone?—is currently number two on Amazon.com's top sellers list.
The Big Picture
It's a Hard Rock Life Taylor hits the ubiquitous music-themed chain restaurant while seeing the sites in Manchester
More PhotosMost Commented
- Bitch-Back! Breaking News—Johnny's a Hottie (915)
- Rob and Kristen "Relaxed" Together in NYC (676)
- Costars and Suits Give Robsten Their Blessings! (650)
- Truth, Lies & Ted: Twilight Special (478)
- Why Won't Sarah Palin Go Away? (446)
- Adam Lambert: For Your Entertainment—or His? (431)
- Is New Moon Even Good? (422)
- Review: New Moon Is Either Just Fine or Way Mopey, Depending On Who You Are (357)
- Bitch-Back! Is There Drama on the Gossip Girl Set? (345)
- Ridiculous Twilight Hookups in an "All Taken" Cast (348)
Top 10 Stories
- Nicole Richie Back in Her Own Bed
- GMA Doesn't Want Adam Lambert's Sloppy Seconds...Cue The Early Show!
- Goodbye or Good Riddance to Jon & Kate Plus 8?
- Oprah's Mom Settles Clothes Call Lawsuit
- Rihanna Sings Threesome, Avoids Going Naked on GMA
- Michael Lohan Runs Out of Family Members to Alienate, Starts Leaking Jon Gosselin Tapes
- It's a Sexy Job, but Adam Lambert's Gotta Do It!
- Donny Discovers Parts He Never Had Before for Dancing With the Stars Finale
- End of a Weird Era: Jon & Kate Plus 8 Signs Off
- Timbaland Denies Dumping Chris Brown
Fashion Police
Sloppy SuitingGwyneth dares to experiment with hard-to-wear satin, but the result is dull and unpolished
More Photos
Latest Movie Reviews
Get Your E! News Now
0 Comments
Now loading...