Putrajaya’s Deafening Silence on FBC Fiasco
What is in dispute here is not the practice of hiring media advisory or public affairs firms, but rather these firms use of paid content to unwarrantedly bolster the image of certain governments at the expense of objective reporting.
By Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (Communications Director Parti Keadilan Rakyat)
Last week, I called on the Federal and the Sarawak state Government to come clean on their hiring of the FBC Media firm to engage in an illegal public relations campaign.
Putrajaya and Kuching were found to have paid FBC hundreds of millions of ringgit for strategic communications services and the production of friendly content for their governments, something clearly in
contravention of fundamental media laws and ethics. It must also be pointed out that FBC was also involved in the engaging of APCO Worldwide to lobby the US government on behalf of Barisan Nasional to promote Malaysia’s pro-business and pro-reform credentials as well as the reforms and anti-terrorism policies introduced.
What is in dispute here is not the practice of hiring media advisory or public affairs firms, but rather these firms use of paid content to unwarrantedly bolster the image of certain governments at the expense of objective reporting.
While the Malaysian Insider has reported that Putrajaya has terminated its contract with FBC following the expose by Sarawak Report, there has so far been no response from either the Federal and Sarawak Governments on the FBC fiasco. Neither Putrajaya nor Kuching has denied or admitted to the allegations. Considering the international media attention that this issue has raised, their silence is truly deafening.
On the other hand, the media establishments involved, such as the BBC and CNBC have subsequently acted in a way that suggests the accusations against the FBC may be credible. BBC has suspended all programming commissioned from the company and is investigating how it came to broadcast supposedly impartial content that was in fact being produced by a company on the payroll of Putrajaya.
CNBC has also indefinitely withdrawn the FBC-produced World Business program. It will be remembered that this show featured Malaysian government leaders on a few occasions.
Finally, Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, is launching its own investigation into claims of bias at FBC.
The FBC fiasco has now attracted attention from credible newspapers across the world and is putting another dent in Malaysia’s tattered image globally.
Surely Putrajaya and Kuching must now disclose their role in and extent of this illegal public relations campaign. This scandal ironically comes in the wake of the censoring of the Economist magazine report on the Bersih 2.0 debacle. As a result, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was forced to concede the need to review national censorship policies.
We would now like the Prime Minister to come clean on the FBC fiasco to explain how hundreds of millions of ringgit of taxpayers’ money were being funnelled not towards the national image, but for the interests of his party.
