6 days ago
Radio Australia finishes Pacific expansion with Marshall Islands launch
ABC Radio Australia has completed its expansion of services across the Pacific with the Marshall Islands set to host broadcasts for the first time in more than five years.
A new FM transmitter means residents of Majuro atoll are the latest listeners to join the network, which has doubled in two years and now extends to 25 locations across the region. Audiences in Majuro can now tune into ABC Radio Australia on 106.7FM.
The launch is the final part of an expansion which kicked off with Ghizo Island in the Solomon Islands in September 2023 and has been rolled out to the Federated States of Micronesia (Pohnpei), Palau (Koror), Nauru, Kiribati (Tarawa), Tuvalu (Funafuti), Cook Islands (Rarotonga), Auki in the Solomon Islands and three additional Papua New Guinea locations, in East New Britain (Kokopo), Manus Island (Lorengau) and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Buka).
Radio Australia now has a network of transmitters in the Pacific, like this one in Tarawa, Kiribati.
Head of ABC International Services, Claire Gorman, hailed the project as a "landmark success".
"In the 85 years since ABC Radio Australia first broadcast across the region, the network has undergone significant changes with this latest expansion in transmission sites," she said.
"This represents the next chapter for ABC Radio Australia, providing new audiences with our slate of trusted news and Pacific-focused radio programming."
ABC Radio Australia Manager Justine Kelly said teams had been working hard for two years to deliver the project.
"We are proud to be available across even more locations throughout the Pacific as our talented team of presenters and comprehensive suite of shows, share the incredible stories and voices from across the region," she said.
The full radio service offers listeners an extensive schedule of bespoke programming covering the latest in news, music, sports, culture, health, science and faith.
Tumultuous times for broadcasters
The completion of the project comes after a tumultuous few months for independent media in Asia and the Pacific.
US President Donald Trump slashed funding to multiple media organisations including Voice of America, Benar News and Radio Free Asia earlier this year, which risked leaving millions of people across the region without access to independent news.
The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which funded these organisations, employed roughly 3,500 people and had an $US886 million budget before it was gutted.
Aleksandra Bielakowska from Reporters Without Borders told the ABC at the time the cuts "threaten press freedom worldwide" and were a "gigantic gift" for authoritarian regimes in Beijing and Moscow.
As VOA director Michael Abramowitz, said: "For the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced.''
The project began with the launch of Radio Australia in Gizo, Solomon Islands, in 2023. ( Radio Australia )
The state of the media in the Pacific
The State of the Media: Pacific Region report found that, despite advancements in the Pacific media sector, it remains fragile in the face of digital disruption and additional loss of advertising revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating an existential crisis.
The study found there had been a sharp increase in internet access across the region over the previous decade. In Samoa, for example, internet access had soared from 7 per cent in 2013 to 75 per cent in 2025.
It also found misinformation and disinformation were bigger challenges in larger countries such as Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Samoa, which have active diasporas and higher penetration of foreign media sources, particularly on social media platforms owned by big tech companies.
There were also concerns about media freedom which influenced audience trust in mainstream media, particularly government-owned media organisations.
Why an independent voice is important
Radio Australia was launched at the start of World War II to counter propaganda from the Axis powers.
For decades it provided an independent news service in multiple languages to people across the region.
Around a decade ago, Australian government budget cuts forced ABC Radio Australia to wind down its coverage and services to focus solely on the Pacific and Timor Leste.
ABC technicians install a transmitter in Nauru.
With extra funding in 2022 and 2023, it has been able to expand the footprint and the amount of content designed for Pacific audiences.
This international broadcasting is important as it can break stories and hold power to account across the region, in a way that local media at times may not be able to.
ABC Radio Australia also supports local radio services by providing relevant valuable content for local audiences and can tell uniquely Pacific stores. It also acts as a counterweight to anti-democratic information and disinformation.
Indeed, when the US government cut funding to its broadcasters, authoritarian regimes including Beijing-backed media celebrated the decision, while activists and analysts warned the closures would create information "black holes" that could be filled by Russian or Chinese services.
There are multiple ways to listen to ABC Radio Australia across the Pacific – live via internet streaming, through 24-hour FM stations in your area, or by catching up with full episodes on ABC Pacific online.
