Erm. That looks to me like a corrupted DLL. Dunno which one though. Could be Resources.DLL. What you're seeing there is the XML data strings that it has packed in there.

Do you perchance have any mod's activated that have a modified Resources.DLL (or any other DLL for that matter?) If so, I'd recommend de-activating it and see if you have the same problem. If you do, or if you have NO mod's activated and you're receiving this error, do a fresh re-install of Freelancer and then install SDK 1.3. I'd recommend against installing the MS Offical patch BTW. If you're only looking to connect to existing servers, you won't need it anyway.

Hope that helps. If not, then provide some more information, such as:
What mods (if any) you have installed/activated at time of error.
Did you install freelancer to another location other than it's default directory?
What Operating System are you running?
Does this error occur only on the servers screen, or all screens?

It could be an XML problem. Try installing an "XML Parser" such as the one that comes with "Halo", and then try FL. Also try reinstalling DirectX 9.0b.

Actually, Freelancer itself installs with an XML Parser of it's own. It would have to in order to be able to handle the XML data. If you look in the main Freelancer directory (where EXE, DATA and DLLS directories are listed) You'll see the setup files for it.

You might be able to get away with running any setup associated with those first, but if that doesn't seem to solve the problem, then a clean re-install might be order.