New station to break radio silence on Anwar

A new independent free to air radio station will kick off its maiden broadcast with a full-length interview with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim tonight.

Radio Free Malaysia (RFM), a sister station of the London-based underground shortwave Radio Free Sarawak , starts broadcasting at 9pm tonight on medium wave (MW) 1,359kHz.

The station plans to broadcast from 9pm to 11pm daily in Bahasa Malaysia.

PKR said the interview was “groundbreaking” as “most Malaysians have not heard Anwar on radio since his removal from government in 1998".

“While Malaysians wait for Parliament to dissolve and a general election to occur, they can listen to the views and thoughts of Pakatan leaders, and decide for themselves what ideas are best for Malaysia for the coming years,” said PKR in a statement from Anwar’s office.

Earlier this month, Anwar’s interview with business station BFM was not aired due to the Klang Valley station’s concerns that the authorities would not permit it.

It was instead only distributed as a podcast via its website.

'BN leaders welcomed'

RFM is an offshoot from the groundbreaking Sarawak shortwave station that Clare Rewcastle Brown , former British prime minister Gordon Brown’s sister-in-law, launched in Nov 2010 to break the government’s media monopoly on the state’s indigenous communities.

The new station, operating on private funding and donations, hopes to do the same in the mainland.

“It is well known that all press and broadcast media currently operating in Malaysia are forced to unquestioningly support and promote the ruling BN coalition and to denigrate the opposition parties, while excluding them from the chance to put their own policies and agendas before the people,” said Rewcastle Brown on RFM’s official website .

She said it was unacceptable that over the past half century, only the ruling party’s voices were allowed to be heard by the people.

“Our short two hour programme provides a very limited opportunity for people who have been attacked in the media to exercise their right to reply. It is not much, but it is better than nothing,” she said.

She said the station hopes to tackle controversial subjects that are currently being blacked out in the mainstream media such as the case of murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and scandals such as the Scorpene submarines and the National Feedlot Corporation’s “cowgate”.

She stressed that she would not be involved in the station’s contents, that will be managed by Malaysian producers and presenters operating out of London to avoid censorship.

Rewcastle Brown added that interviews with BN leaders are also welcomed, but warned that the station would not be giving them the “deliberate soft ride they are always accustomed to from the licenced media”.

“We will ask tough questions about tough subjects, which as the people in charge of making decisions for the country they ought to be answering,” she said.