Oh, Mr President (newspaper may be prosecuted for showing half-naked photo of wet President)

Sunday Times (South Africa) ^ | Friday December 03, 2004 08:49 - (SA)

[dead]

ALMATY - Parliament deputies in Kazakhstan have asked that an opposition newspaper be prosecuted for showing a dripping President Nursultan Nazarbayev laid all but bare in a pair of skimpy trunks, says one of the deputies.

The photo published by the opposition Respublika newspaper on November 26 showed a tanned Nazarbayev, 64, emerging from the sea onto an unspecified beach.

"This is not good for the authority of our president - they show the president in a private photo in a private situation," said Serik Abdrakhmanov, one of about 20 deputies who signed a letter calling for the prosecutor general to look into the matter.

"We're Eastern people with a different psychology," Abdrakhmanov said.

Nazarbayev was oil-rich Kazakhstan's last Soviet-era leader and has clung to power ever since through a series of elections and referenda judged by the West as flawed.

The photograph was an archive shot attributed to the London-based ethics pressure group Global Witness, but was used by Respublika with an article saying that Nazarbayev had recently holidayed with a local businesswoman at a Chinese health resort.

Defamation as well as offending the president's dignity are defined as crimes under Kazakhstan's Soviet-inspired legal system.

On Thursday Respublika's deputy editor Galina Dyrdina defended the photograph.

"We think this picture shows what good shape our president is in - we see nothing wrong in it," Dyrdina said.

AFP

[Wonderama]

Is he cute??? If so I want pictures!!!!

[1Old Pro]

I felt the same way when looking at photos of a pasty white clontoon attempting to jog.

[martin_fierro]

Eegah.

[Mark in the Old South]

Cute or not I find an article about a photo that does not include that photo odd, unless it is gruesome or obscene. It would help understand the culture if we could see the pic.

[dead]

Is he cute???

I post, you decide:

I’m guessing the picture in question was not flattering in the least, and the editors of the paper are breaking his balls when they say it makes him look good.

[JennysCool]

I want pictures!!!!

No problem.

[meowmeow]

:( Darn, I was hoping it was W

[MamaTexan]

Is he cute???

No, the question should be..

'Is he better looking than Teddy Kennedy?'

[jusduat]

Name anyone not better looking than Ted

[Xenalyte]

These guys. Just barely.

[dead]

[RepoGirl]

Ted's got quite the impressive set of man-boobies, there.

I Just Ate PING

[MamaTexan]

YOU are a sick & demented individual! (:-P)

[zoobee]

Wow..poor guys...are they from the hills?

[PleaseNoMore]

That was what I wondered (hoped) too, lol.

[Xenalyte]

I don't know . . . I've seen that picture for a couple years now, and it just cracks me up.

[processing please hold]

So was I. That's why I came on the thread.

Dangit!!!

[MamaTexan]

At least you could used the brown paper bag method!

A body bag wouldn't help the Jello Fellow!!

[processing please hold]

ALAN COLMES!!!!!!