Radio Free Sarawak (Malay: Radio Sarawak Bebas) is a pirate radio station established by environmental and anti-corruption activistClare Rewcastle Brown and helmed by former Cats FM presenter Peter John Jaban (Papa Orang Utan), Christina Suntai who graduated from Florida Technical College in computer science and computer programming, and Michael Ngau. First broadcast on 16 November 2010, the station can be received by shortwave on 15420 kHz. It also produced podcasts for its programmes daily from 1100–1300 UTC or 7:00–9:00 pm at Sarawak local time (UTC+8). The station received wide publicity in Malaysia after the brief disappearance of Jaban.[1] However it was later discovered that he had gone into hiding voluntarily.[2] On 15 November 2014, the radio suspended its shortwave transmission services and claimed the Sarawak state government has jammed its service.[3]
Purpose
In its own words, "Radio Free Sarawak is the independent radio station that brings you the news you want to hear, not what others want you to hear."[4] In a report by the London Evening Standard, it was stated that the station aims to "expose the alleged corruption of Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of ... Sarawak ... and bring an end to his 30-year rule."[5]
The station can be seen as an attempt to by-pass the control of mass media outlets in Sarawak which are controlled by Taib's government and logging companies.[6]
Born in colonial Sarawak to British parents, Brown is best known as an environmental and anti-corruption activist who started her career as a journalist with the BBC in 1983. In 2008, she returned to Sarawak to report on a by-election and secretly filmed companies clearing rainforests for oil palm plantations. In 2010, she anonymously founded the Malaysia-focused blog Sarawak Report to advocate for environmental causes, indigenous rights and anti-corruption.
Incidentally, Brown is the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.[7]
Better known by his on-air pseudonym, Papa Orang Utan, Jaban is an Iban from Sarawak and a former civil servant with the Land and Survey Office of Kuching. He was also a former DJ of the state-owned Cats FM radio station.[8] Jaban worked the airwaves for that station from 1996-1999.
In June 2012, Jaban returned to Sarawak purportedly for a medical check up in Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Miri Branch Chairman Dr.Michael Teo's clinic, when he was accosted by three men from Dr.Michael's car. A press statement released by Jaban's Democratic Action Party lawyer Alan Ling Sie Kiong indicated that prior to that, Jaban was stopped at Immigration upon his entry and was told that he would be questioned by the Malaysian Special Branch.[9]
Podcasts of Radio Free Sarawak have also been distributed via CDs and VCDs together with TV Free Sarawak into the interior of Sarawak where the internet penetration is still low. However, on 6 January 2011, there was an incident where the activists and lawyers possessing such materials were detained by the police and home ministry officials and the materials were confiscated, citing the possible violation of Film Censorship Act and section 4(1) of the Sedition Act (Malaysia).[11][12] The activists were supposed to be charged in magistrate court on 7 February, but home ministry officials did not turn up.[13]
Government probe
The Sarawak Barisan Nasional had stated that they would like to see legal action taken against Radio Free Sarawak[14] and the Home Ministry of Malaysia confirmed that an investigation was being made against the station as it was spreading "malicious lies and threatening unity and harmony among races".[15]
Online downtime
The website of Radio Free Sarawak as well as their podcast from iTunes has been inaccessible since 9 April 2011 due to unknown reasons.[16] The inaccessibility of the website coincides with the campaigning period of the bitterly contested 2011 Sarawak elections and may be a distributed Denial of service attack. Nonetheless, the station continued their daily one-hour broadcast on shortwave from 1000 UTC - 1100 UTC. Radio Free Sarawak's sister site, Sarawak Report has also been subject to a massive cyber attack although effort is being made to get both the websites back into operation.[17] The founder, Clare Rewcastle-Brown, has commented that the attacks are "a full admission by BN that our insights and investigations have been causing them major difficulties".[17]
