Sarawakians in the interior of the state will now have an alternative source of information with the Radio Free Sarawak beginning transmission today.

The broadcast is being transmitted out of London, and consists of only one hour of programming from 6.30-7.30am Sarawak time on the short-wave frequency 7590 kHz.

The same news, current affairs and commentary programme will be repeated the same day from 6-7pm local time on 15869 kHz.

According to a source, the content will be produced by local NGOs and community leaders in Sarawak and sent to London to be transmitted.

“We started this project a few months ago. We had our first test broadcast this morning, and found there were still improvements to be made in terms of clarity,” he said when contacted.

He said many people in the interior of Sarawak get news via short-wave radio, which is largely defunct in developed parts of the world.

“We found that many use short-wave radios to tune in to RTM broadcasts,” he said, adding that Radio Free Sarawak intends to fill the gap created by one-sided content from the national broadcaster.

It is understood that this is not the first attempt to bring foreign-transmitted local content into Sarawak. However, previous attempts were unsuccessful.