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Re: Why is Sacha Baron Cohen not having his ass sued off by the Kazakh government?

silverbolt

19

am i missing something like the opening post

why is there no opening post

Re: Why is Sacha Baron Cohen not having his ass sued off by the Kazakh government?

silverbolt

19

am i missing something like the opening post

why is there no opening post

Reply 1

Juwel

18

He's been invited to Kazakhstan by some senior official over there. I think it was the president. So he can see what Kazakhstan is really like, as if he doesn't know.

Reply 2

Asriel

1

What did happen to the opening post?

Borat is great :biggrin:

They wouldnt sue him, he has provided the country with loads of free publicity

Reply 3

Invocation

12

Because it'll make kazhakstan look even worse.

Reply 4

a_man_1066

10

What the hell happened to my opening post? My computer has been playing up, but I did write one, it just seems to have dissappeared :confused:

It went along the lines of:

Opening

Borat - is this not a bit dodgy picking a paticular real country (Kazakhstan) as opposed to a fictional one?

I can understand the Kazakhs wanting to allow him tell some jokes, but he is in trying to convince people he is an ambassador sent by the government of Kazakhstan, and then lieing to them.

So far the Kazakhs have sent their real president to visit the USA, produced a full-page spread in the NY Times where they explain what the real Kazakhstan is like, and have urged Sacha Baron Cohen to stop.

He then, in character as Borat, replied at a press conference saying he had the full support of the Kazakh government and that anyone who disputed his portrayal of the country is a traitor.

Hilarious and good-humoured I know, and you gotta admire Sacha Baron Cohen's confidence and sheer balls, but libel, especially against a government, can be quite serious. My question is: Why do the Kazakh government not take legal action? Why do they allow him to continue?

Reply 5

L i b

19

For one, it's clearly comedy. I don't even know how much of it is staged, but anyway...

Yes, even if the Kazakhs could take legal action against him, they'd look incredibly foolish doing so.

Reply 6

preparationH

they are too busy drinking fermented horse urine

Reply 7

Murphyen

9

Because they'd never win...

Reply 8

Chumbaniya

17

I think it would look very bad for the Kazakh government if they were forced to take legal action against a comedian. It's one thing for Kazakhstan to be (light-heartedly) ridiculed by Sacha Baron Cohen, and quite another for them to effectively ridicule themselves by taking legal action against him. I doubt there's any country in the world which is not somehow stereotyped and made fun of by foreigners, and it would be foolish for any country to try and prevent this - it just makes them appear to be overreacting.

Reply 9

silverbolt

OP

19

Chumbaniya

I think it would look very bad for the Kazakh government if they were forced to take legal action against a comedian. It's one thing for Kazakhstan to be (light-heartedly) ridiculed by Sacha Baron Cohen, and quite another for them to effectively ridicule themselves by taking legal action against him. I doubt there's any country in the world which is not somehow stereotyped and made fun of by foreigners, and it would be foolish for any country to try and prevent this - it just makes them appear to be overreacting.

yeah i mean can you imagine labour or anyone trying to sue david williams and matt lucas

Reply 10

dabizzle

It is shame what with there being so many law students/aspiring students that no one has actually spoken about it from an accurate legal perspective. THe Khazakastani Government could bring forward a criminal sedition claim against him, and individuals mentioned could correspondingly bring a civil libel claim against him. Bhorat is clearly a work of fiction and would undoubtedly claim a defence of satire.

IT is unimportant to really analyse the full merits of these immediate actions, as any action would depend opon the International laws between the two nations. It would be very unlikely for the Khazakastanis to succesfully attest any action due to the inherently problematic area of enforcement. This would hinge upon the Treaties between the two nations and most likely require English assistance. There are numerous difficulties now- for instance it might not be internationaly legally viable- i am a law student not a practising International lawyer thus i cannot actually answer that question.

Secondarily there is a PR problem with bringing forward any action- namely that it woulg lay a certain impresssion on the nation. The Khazakstanis would undeniably claim that the film/creation portrays the nation in a disgracefully warped light bearing no resemblance to their actual country, and that they need to silence it immediately. Conversely there would be those arguing that their actions of enforcement mereley give more prevalance to the film/creation, develop its notoriety and thus attract a larger audience to the whole thing. It is an international relations issue before it is a legal one, so it will be interesting to see how it will be handled. At present it would seem that the only thing the Khazakastanis could do depenends upon him physically being in their sovereign state. This makes me slightly anxious about his recent invitation- but as i said before it is an international relations issue before it is a legal one- could you imagine the pursuing chaos if he was actually detained there after being falsely procured. So i guess the the answer has become apparent and i have taken account of all of the issues.

Reply 11

Segat1

16

Did anyone actually know anything about Khazakstan before Borat arrived?

Reply 12

danni_bella

17

Lol. Can't wait to see the movie, just gotta get exams out the way :biggrin:

Reply 13

L i b

19

dabizzle

THe Khazakastani Government could bring forward a criminal sedition claim against him

For the first, virtually no state on earth regularly prosecutes for sedition. It's like treason - a wartime offence and one generally rooted in another age.

For another, even if he was in their country for whatever reason, and without explicitly knowing Kazakh treason etc laws I doubt 'taking the piss out of the motherland' would qualify.

T is unimportant to really analyse the full merits of these immediate actions, as any action would depend opon the International laws between the two nations. It would be very unlikely for the Khazakastanis to succesfully attest any action due to the inherently problematic area of enforcement. This would hinge upon the Treaties between the two nations and most likely require English assistance. There are numerous difficulties now- for instance it might not be internationaly legally viable- i am a law student not a practising International lawyer thus i cannot actually answer that question.

The British state is not in the habit of deporting comedians to tin-pot foreigner countries on trumphed up charges of treason... :rolleyes:

Anyway, as a general point, I don't think they really mind as much as people think they do.

Reply 14

L i b

19

Segat1

Did anyone actually know anything about Khazakstan before Borat arrived?

Very little. And I still can't claim that I've worked out definitively how to spell it yet either.

Reply 15

Salmon

Segat1

Did anyone actually know anything about Khazakstan before Borat arrived?

Spose he has created tourism.

Reply 16

Johnny 5

12

I'm no lawyer, but I doubt you can libel a country.

Reply 17

dabizzle

Im sorry if i did not make myself clear- but i said that it was unimportant to actually analyse the merits of a sedition action- due to the unlikeliness that there would be any co-operation between the nations. I was speaking from a legal theory perspective. However sedition

Reply 18

KerriT

9

It's Kazakhstan, the people are Kazakhs. They speak Russian (very few speak Kazahk, too difficult apparently) and look a bit like Chinese/Asian people. There is a small but very wealthy elite which lives in developed cities such as Almaty and these people can afford more than most of us ever will. They are also very materialistic and have the opinion that anyone with less money than them is somehow a lesser person. This is all from personal experience with Kazakh girls this summer. However, it is not a safe country, the wealthy cannot walk anywhere, to the extent that they are driven to the shopping centre, walk around the shopping centre (where there is security) and then are picked up by their driver. Nevertheless, it is a very beautiful country and although it has problems Borat really irritates me, at the beginning it was quite funny but he has gone too far and needs to grow up.

Re: Why is Sacha Baron Cohen not having his ass sued off by the Kazakh government?

Re: Why is Sacha Baron Cohen not having his ass sued off by the Kazakh government?

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