TV COMPANY ACCUSED OF ETHICS BREACH DECLARES BANKRUPTCY

A U.K. TV production company, FBC Media, has gone “into administration” — the British equivalent of bankruptcy — following revelations that it produced programs for the BBC about Malaysia while receiving £17 million (about $26 million) from the Malaysian government to promote its image, the London Independent reported today (Friday). The newspaper said that NBC Universal-owned cable channel CNBC dropped a weekly show, World Business, produced by the company after learning that it had promised another one of its clients, Microsoft, guaranteed coverage on the show. FBC had claimed, however, that it kept its production and commercial divisions “quite separate and distinct.” According to the Independent, FBC has numerous blue-chip clients, including the governments of Greece, Italy, and Zambia and contracts to promote tourism in Malaysia, Indonesia and Hungary.