Fraudulent PR campaign blows up in M’sia’s face

Millions spent on a public relations campaign abroad to boost Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's image and the Barisan Nasional government has turned sour.

KUALA LUMPUR: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has suspended all programming from the London-based FBC Media after it was ‘confirmed’ that the TV production company had received payment to produce and air, as genuine content, at least four documentaries on Malaysia’s palm oil industry and its ‘treatment of the rainforest and indigenous people’.

BBC in a statement to UK’s prestigious daily The Independent yesterday said that “FBC has now admitted to the BBC that it has worked for the Malaysian government”.

“That information was not disclosed to the BBC as we believe it should have been when the BBC contracted programming from FBC.

“Given this, the BBC has decided to transmit no more programming from FBC while it reviews its relationship with the company.”

It is understood that prior to it’s TV productions for Malaysia, FBC had already produced some 20 programmes for the BBC and had signed the BBC’s standard producer guidelines which guarantee to “not accept money or other services or benefits from any individual, company or organisation with a view to endorsing or promoting such services and/or products in the series or series publicity or which could lead to doubts about the subjectivity or impartiality of the series”.

In a published statement to The Independent, the BBC said: “All independent TV companies who produce programmes for BBC World News have to sign strict agreements to ensure programmes meet the BBC’s editorial guidelines, including avoiding any conflict of interest.”

BBC’s World News attracts 78 million viewers a week and is available in more than 200 countries.

The Independent had further flogged the fact that FBC received “almost £6 million” (RM28 million) from the Malaysian governmnent and the amount had been reflected in the Malaysian government’s Supplementary Budget 2010.

The report noted that the payout had been for work on a “Global Strategic Communications Campaign” in 2009.

It also noted that a similar sum of RM29.34 million was also allocated to the company for the previous year and that the matter had been raised in Malaysian parliament.

FBC, with offices in London, Mumbai and Rome, has however denied any impropriety in its programmes for any broadcaster.

Speaking through its lawyers, FBC media said: “At no time have the television programmes made for the BBC ever been influenced or affected by our client’s commercial activities”.

Apco-link

Meanwhile the newspaper’s further investigation into FBC has also linked them to US lobby group Apco Worldwide.

“Documents filed with the United States government’s House of Representatives in 2008 show that FBC Media (UK) contracted the Washington-based American lobbying company APCO Worldwide, which it paid more than US$80,000 (£50,000) in 2008 for the purpose of “raising awareness of the importance of policies in Malaysia that are pro-business and pro-investment as well as [showing] the significance of reform and anti-terrorism efforts in that country”.

According to the report, FBC had denied that it had ever worked for Malaysia. But this was when the newspaper interviewed its leader at the end of last month.

But “confronted with evidence of contractual arrangements listed in Malaysian public records, the company’s lawyers said they had made an error, having failed to spot an amendment made by our client to a draft letter that we had prepared.

“(Their revert) stated: “It is no secret that FBC received funds and performed consultancy work and media-buying for the Malaysian government in the past.”

When asked about FBC hiring American lobbyists to promote Malaysia, they said: “The object of that work involved showing the economy of Malaysia to be attractive to investors and committed to battling terrorism.”

FBC had, in its former website, listed a series of prestigious media brands including BBC World (now BBC World News), CNN, CNBC Europe and a number of print publications including The Economist, the Financial Times, Business Week, the Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune as the recipients of their reports and TV productions.

Following the expose by Sarawak Report and The Independent’s investigation into FBC, the company had pulled down its website and replaced it with a single page, giving only the most basic of information.

On this single page PBC boasted: “We control blue-chip television editorial time-slots” and can “guarantee controlled messaging from A to Z on the world’s leading news channels…. FBC is not a traditional PR firm … (FBC) can guarantee that your message is endorsed by prestige third-party ambassadors”.

Meanwhile BBC is not the only TV network investigating FBC Media. CNBC has also begun an examination of “FBC and its business practices” and “withdrawn indefinitely” the programme ‘Word Business’ which FBC produces.