Najib and Co spent millions for PR
Why are Malaysians paying for Najib and BN leaders’ global public relations campaign?
Huge sums of money, RM57 million over the past two years, have been paid out to a UK media company FBC Media as fees for a “Global Strategic Communications” campaign.
Clare Rewcastle Brown, Free Malaysia Today
Some months ago we noticed that the once secretive Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud was suddenly being featured in international TV news programmes.
Alongside this was also a number of positive reports about Sarawak’s development and the benefits of palm oil.
These reports were being featured in some of the major global news networks, without mentioning any of the state’s dire environmental, human rights and economic problems.
Our team at Sarawak Report decided to investigate what was going on and where the funding for all this lay.
Following hard on the heels of the current revelations on phone and computer hacking by some UK newspapers, we have exposed a disgraceful scam selling slots on TV news shows to the highest bidder.
We can also reveal that Barisan Nasional’s top leaders in Malaysia have been at the heart of the corruption, using taxpayers’ money to promote themselves on business shows and documentaries.
The evidence for these expenses has been written into the Malaysian government’s own budget records.
Huge sums of money, RM57 million over the past two years, have been paid out to a UK media company FBC Media as fees for a “Global Strategic Communications” campaign.
RM57 million for air slots
PKR general-secretary Saifuddin Nasution had in fact queried the amount in Parliament last year.
Well, in the absence of any answers from BN, we can now supply him with the reason.
FBC Media is not only a public relations company offering image-building advice to anyone rich enough to afford them but they also double up as a TV production company.
The company focuses on producing business and sports news programmes, as well as current affairs documentaries for some of the World’s top TV companies such as CNBC, CNN and BBC World.
Among its distinguished Malaysian clients are current Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Sime Darby chairman Musa Hitam. Taib has also now joined FBC Media’s stable of clients.
All these leaders have been corruptly buying, through FBC Media, airtime slots to promote themselves on these networks and channels.
Several top TV executives in the UK and the US and their company bosses are now going to have to answer some highly embarrassing questions from their licencing authorities.
How could these companies possibly commission such dodgy programmes from a PR company all these years?
The reason, of course, has been the scramble for cheap programming.
With too many competing TV channels chasing after diminishing advertising revenues, it is now a clients’ market and slots go to the highest bidder.
