Comic was deprived of human rights

Borat has been a victim of human rights abuse, the US State Department has said.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional Kazakh TV reporter made an unlikely appearance in a heavyweight report issued by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today.

Included in the document was criticism of Kazakhstan for curbing freedom of speech – including shutting down Borat’s spoof website in late 2005.

‘The government deemed as offensive the content of a satirical site controlled by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and revoked the .kz domain,’ the report said.

Shortly before the website – which portrayed Kazakhs as a bunch of backward misogynist racists - was closed down, a Kazakh Foreign Ministry official had threatened legal measures.

At the time, Cohen responded in character, saying: ‘I fully support my government's position to sue this Jew.’

The oil-rich state has no independent judiciary, and last year opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly was murdered in what the report calls ‘unlawful deprivation of life’.

Despite the negative attention from Borat, and now human rights watchers, Baron Cohen’s film has this week been credited with increasing tourism in Kazakhstan. A poll of travel agents found the vast but little-known country has become the must-visit destination of 2007 thanks to what is being dubbed the ‘Borat bump’.

Published: 7 Mar 2007