Watch RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis shut down his interview with the BBC

This is probably not the best way to get publicity right before Research in Motion’s big tablet launch. RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis was on BBC news this week to discuss the company’s new product—the Playbook, which is to compete with the iPad—when the BBC interviewer took the conversation in a different direction. The British public broadcaster had the nerve to ask about the unpleasantness RIM faced in the Middle East, and after some brief stonewalling, Lazaridis insisted the interview was over and ordered the camera turned off. Now, imagine how bad it would have been if the BBC had been as mean about the actual tablet as, say, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg was in this review. Maybe talking about security issues in the Middle East is the best RIM could have hoped for.

• RIM CEO calls a halt to BBC Click interview [BBC] • PlayBook: A Tablet With a Case Of Codependency [Wall Street Journal]