Senate: Overseas Location Makes Action Against Radio Free Sarawak Difficult

(Bernama) – Radio Free Sarawak operates from abroad, thus making it difficult for action to be taken against it for discrediting the Sarawak government and the country, the Dewan Negara was told yesterday.

Deputy Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Joseph Salang said it was difficult for the ministry to monitor the radio and exercise control over its broadcast.

“We know that several S’wakians are involved in the broadcast and are liable to legal action,” he said when replying to a supplementary question from Senator Lihan Jok.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was reported to be prepared to investigate the existence of the radio and its broadcast content after several police reports had been made, including by the youth wing of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), claiming that it was illegal and disseminated false accusations directed particularly at Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

The radio station, said to be engaged in a clandestine operation, reportedly broadcasts out of London and promotes anti-government propaganda to Sarawakians while criticising the state’s leaders in its twice-daily broadcast.

Clare Rewcastle Brown, sister-in-law of former British prime minister Gordon Brown, and Iban activist Peter John Jaban, issued a statement on Feb 23 last year in a British tabloid claiming to be responsible for the radio station and the ‘Sarawak Report’ blog.