A website parodying the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, was shut down after the New Zealand Herald complained about the site's misuse of the Herald's website format.
The website featured a bogus news story, laid out in a style copied from nzherald.co.nz, describing the purported sexual activities of the Prime Minister and
her husband.
There has been speculation that the Labour Party had the site closed. But it was the Herald, prompted by commercial concerns about misuse of its website format, which complained to the company hosting the website, RegisterDirect.
The Herald also informed the service provider that the registration details for the site were bogus.
The site was registered to a Brian Tamariki but the contact telephone number was actually for an Auckland sexual health clinic and the email address was non-existent.
RegisterDirect spokesman Mike Schupbach said the site was shut down because of abuse of its automated name registration service and multiple breaches of the company's conditions of use.
The material has reappeared on a site registered outside New Zealand.
