An investigation into London-based global broadcaster BBC has revealed serious breaches in the network's editorial guidelines on programmes, including those made by public relations and production company FBC Media Ltd, on issues concerning Malaysia.

According to reports in British newspapers The Independent and The Guardian yesterday, BBC has owned up to a "nominal fee" programming scandal, in which viewers of 15 editorial programmes were hoodwinked by "serious conflicts of interest" of programme makers and a failure to declare that those documentaries had outside sponsors.

The Independent reported that the programmes, aired on BBC's World News channel, were made for "low or nominal cost", but many were heavyweight documentaries on controversial environmental issues and the BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body, said it was "deeply concerned" by the findings.

NONEAll 15 programmes were found to have been in breach of one, or more, of the BBC's rules governing conflict of interest, promotion of a sponsor's activities and sponsorship of current affairs shows.

Eight of the breaches were related to FBC Media, a London-based production company, the questionable working practices of which have been uncovered in a long-running investigation by The Independent.

The report says FBC Media produced programmes on Malaysia for the BBC without declaring that it had been allocated £17 million (about RM85 million) by the Malaysian government to carry out a global strategic communications campaign.

FBC Media produced seven programmes on Malaysia for the BBC, four of them in the series "Develop or Die".

'Programmes inappropriately sponsored'

Apart from Malaysia, the BBC also found that FBC Media had breached programme guidelines on a programme it made on Egypt in March this year, during the Arab Spring uprisings.

The Independent has established that FBC was then working for the regime of the former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

The BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) warned that documentary makers may have been unduly influenced by their financial backers, the daily reported.

"We have found that several programmes shown on the BBC's World News channel had been inappropriately sponsored, and in the case of one of the independent producers, FBC Media, there was at least a suggestion that the company had a conflict of interest of which the BBC had been unaware," Richard Ayre, who chaired the meeting of the ESC, is quoted as saying.

"The Trust is deeply concerned at this and we very much regret that these programmes failed to live up to the editorial standards we set for the BBC," Ayre adds

The Guardian quotes the ESC as saying: "Based on evidence before the committee of the apparent financial relationship between FBC Media and the Malaysian government, the committee concluded that FBC Media was not an appropriate producer for these particular programmes, being about Malaysia, its industries and Malaysian government policies."

"The committee considered that it could not be adequately confident that a relationship between FBC Media and the Malaysian government and/or other Malaysian interests had not affected the content of BBC output.

"In light of the overall content covering Malaysia, the committee was concerned that the BBC has broadcast programmes which may have promoted particular subject matters (or presented them in a certain way) as a result of a production company's financial interests."

A BBC World News spokesperson told The Independent that the channel accepts the BBC Trust's findings and has set out a robust action plan that has been endorsed by the ESC.

FBC Media admitted to working for Malaysia

It has also terminated its dealings with FBC Media, which continues to operate internationally but has gone into administration in the UK.

"With regard to FBC Media, we immediately suspended the broadcast of programmes from FBC when we became aware of these issues and FBC has subsequently admitted to the BBC that it has worked for the Malaysian government," said the spokesperson.

NONE"That information was not disclosed to the BBC as it should have been when the BBC contracted programming from FBC Media, and we have now terminated our relationship with the company."

The United Kingdom's broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, also announced yesterday that it was launching an investigation into the matter.

The scandal was first highlighted by Sarawak Report, a portal founded by journalist Clare Rewcastle-Brown (right), who is the sister-in-law of former British prime minister Gordon Brown.

Sarawak Report said FBC Media was paid millions of ringgit by BN politicians to glam up their image overseas.

This was verified by the entries in the government's Supplementary Budget 2010, which showed that FBC Media was allocated RM28.35 million for work on a ‘Global Strategic Communications Campaign' it was assigned in 2009. The company had received RM29.34 million the previous year.

Earlier, another international news broadcaster, CNBC, which was said to have aired programmes produced by FBC Media, announced that its flagship business show ‘World Business' had been axed after the expose.

NONEHowever, another international broadcaster, CNN, has denied a Sarawak Report article that its recent interview with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak that touched on the Bersih 2.0 rally was the result of lobbying by FBC Media.

Despite the limelight received by Malaysia in this "scandal", Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz has maintained that even if FBC Media had committed any offence or broken any law, none involved "criminal element" in its engagement by Malaysia.

"This is more of possible breaches of UK (broadcasting ethics and) guidelines. There is no criminal element in it being engaged by us per se," Nazri told the Parliament early this month.


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