Packaged TV productions extolling the virtues of Malaysia and Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud have embarrassed some of the world's leading television networks after they were found to have been paid for by the Malaysian government as part of a massive public relations campaign.

According to Sarawak Report , the news programmes are being produced by Fact Based Communications, a London-based company also known as FCB Media, that describes itself on its website as an "European-based media and entertainment group specialising in television format creation, production and distribution."

The story was posted on the Sarawak Report blog earlier this month, but appears to have escaped the notice of the mainstream media. However, the US television network CNBC announced on Aug 4 that it was cancelling World Business, a programme that airs in Europe and Asia, after the network learned that FBC Media was found to have a contract with Taib and had paid US$70,000 to the Apce Worldwide public relations firm to lobby in Washington, DC on behalf of the Malaysian government.

CNBC World has carried 10 interviews by FBC chairman Alan Friedman with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak over the past two years...