December 14, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Kazakhstan authorities, angered by his satirical portrayal of a sexist, racist Kazakh television reporter, have shut down the Web site of British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen. Cohen, who plays alter ego Borat in his "Da Ali G Show," used the character's Web site www.borat.kz last month to respond sarcastically to legal threats from the state's Foreign Ministry.
Nurlan Isin, president of the government-appointed Association of Kazakh IT Companies, was quoted as saying the site was shut down so Cohen could not "badmouth" the country under its .kz domain name.
Isin said the borat.kz Web site violated new rules on all .kz sites maintaining two computer servers in Kazakhstan, as well as registering false names for its administrators. Cohen, as Borat, hosted the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon last month, where he jokingly said his wife could not leave Kazakhstan because was a woman.
Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened to sue Cohen, saying it could not rule out that he was under "political orders" to defame Kazakhstan's name. Cohen, who is Jewish, responded to the legal threats on the borat.kz site in character, saying, "I have no connection to Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's position to sue this Jew."
