Online news portal Radio Free Sarawak has said that the state authorities have invested millions of ringgit in several devices in order to silence its independent radio service. Announcing the suspension of its shortwave broadcasts due to repeated jamming and disruption, Sarawak Report said the decision was taken "after audiences had been driven to frustration by signal disruptions and electronic interference". Sarawak Report said after Radio Free Sarawak's last shortwave transmission yesterday that no new broadcasts would be made until further notice, although the station retains its web presence. The new form of electronic interference is caused by a network of jamming devices which appears to have been erected in various localities around the state. "These local jammers are extremely expensive to buy and have a limited local range of a few miles. However they are highly effective," Sarawak Report said. It said state authorities appeared to have invested millions of ringgit in several devices in order to silence a single independent radio platform. Radio Free Sarawak specialised in allowing native communities to speak out about their problems including deforestation, land grabs and the frenzy of dam building now hitting their regions. The station won the Communication for Social Change Award 2014, awarded by the University of Queensland Australia. Last year, it won the International Press Institute's "Pioneer of Media Freedom Award 2013" for its service to isolated Sarawak communities. Radio Free Sarawak founder and editor Clare Rewcastle Brown told Sarawak Report that their audience was dedicated and enthusiastic. "They hugely miss listening to our programmes. However, this state government has thrown everything at us," Rewcastle said. "We have identified and confronted the Belgium-based agent, who has been behind much, if not all, of this jamming jihad against us and what we can verify is that his services are very expensive. "It costs millions to erect this sort of local equipment and the long-range jamming from Russia and Moldova also costs hundreds of thousands of ringgit. "It is very sad that the Sarawak authorities have spent this money on silencing freedom of speech instead of improving services in education and health and other such needy matters which have been raised by the radio station," Rewcastle added. She said the authorities had by their actions "shown their true colours and also their fear of a single, small voice of criticism". Radio Free Sarawak's well-known founding DJ/presenter Peter John Jaban said the station expects to be back in 2015. – November 15, 2014.
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