British Regulator Cracks Down On BBC, CNN & CNBC For Airing Paid Propaganda

A British broadcasting regulator says the BBC was in “blatant breach” of its rules by airing propaganda films promoted by foreign governments and other organizations with a political point of view. In a 112 page report, Ofcam report also named U.S. broadcasters CNN and CNBC for airing paid propaganda and not disclosing it to viewers.

BBC, CNN, CNBC broadcast editorial content paid for by foreign governments, business interests

In what has become known as the “£1 scandal” in England, Ofcam called the masking of propaganda an “inherent risk to the BBC’s independence and integrity.” The broadcasters were accused of purchasing programming rights to expensive content for as little £1, or $1.57. "In the case of CNBC, the broadcaster had been paid by FBC to transmit its content,” the Ofcom report stated.

FactBased Communications (FBC), a London-based media and public relations company with many governmental clients, is reported to have worked for the Malaysian government to promote their interests. The report claimed FBC had received millions of pounds from the Malaysian government while making documentaries for the BBC on the topic of Malaysia.

“FBC’s relationship with the government of Malaysia and Defterios’s relationship with FBC would have called into question the due impartiality of the interviews”, Ofcom said in the report.

Regulators found hundreds programs of paid programs broadcast under the guise of news

Media regulators in England found hundreds of nominal cost programming that was broadcast under the guise of news with the production paid for by organizations ranging from the Indonesian ministry of trade and departments in the United Nations to a Cambodian casino operator.

FBC produced World Business on CNBC and was reported to have won a Grand Prix Award in Europe for best global business and financial program, but was criticized in the report.

For CNN, the firm produced CNN Marketplace Middle East and John Defterios, FBC media’s president from 2007 to 2011, was host of the show.  CNN International was most criticized, having been found to have broken Ofcams code 26 times. Defterios, now CNN’s emerging markets editor, conducted interviews on CNN with the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, in 2010 and 2011 on the shows Marketplace Middle East and Quest Means Business. He was being paid by Malysia at the time, the Ofcam report claims.

Ofcom also found CNN in breach of impartiality rules over a 2009 interview by Defterios with Gamal Mubarak, son of the then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian government’s investment authority, Gafi, was another FBC client. The regulator also noted CNN broadcast content paid for by the Singapore Economic Development Board to smaller concerns such as Macedonia Tourism.

“We welcome Ofcom’s conclusion that the way our programmes were funded did not compromise CNN International’s editorial independence,” CNN said in a statement reported in The Independent.

Read the full report here.

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