Torres Strait Islander Media Association
Recognised for providing independent radio, TV and online news services to the remote Torres Strait Islands and empowering locals to tell their own stories.
About this finalist
- Year: 2026
- Level: Finalist
- Award category: Media Award
About the 2026 nomination
Torres Strait Islander Media Association (TSIMA) is Indigenous-led and the only media organisation that specifically reports on and informs the peoples of the Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait).
For 4 decades TSIMA has broadcast as Radio 4MW Meriba Wakai - known as “The Voice of the Torres Strait” - from the tip of Cape York and across Australia’s international border into Papua New Guinea - with programs and news about the region, for the region, produced by Islander and Aboriginal people. The Torres News was founded in 1957 and was acquired by TSIMA in 2021 to ensure the region has a regular, reliable and culturally informed newspaper and social media presence.
In 2025, TSIMA went to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting in Honiara, the first time in PIF’s 54-year history a Torres Strait Islander journalist has reported from the Pacific on the region’s most important political gathering of presidents and prime ministers.
Torres Strait Islander senior broadcaster Sylvia Tabua and news correspondent Stefan Armbruster addressed a longstanding gap in Australian news reportage on the Torres Strait and PIF with their coverage. TSIMA's approach recognises representation itself is a human rights issue.
Torres Strait Islanders have become internationally recognised for their leadership on climate justice through the landmark ‘Torres Strait 8’ case at the UN Human Rights Committee, but their voices have rarely been represented in Australian reporting about the climate crisis and regional affairs, despite their deep Melanesian cultural, historical and geographic ties to the Blue Pacific.
TSIMA's reporting centred Torres Strait perspectives on climate justice, regional recognition and Australia's relationship with the Pacific. Rather than reporting on Torres Strait Islanders as subjects, their journalism enabled Pacific leaders, climate advocates and Torres Strait communities to speak directly to one another.
About the Human Rights Awards
The Australian Human Rights Awards is an inspirational showcase of the best in all of us. The Awards honour and celebrate diverse human rights heroes and significant achievements in protecting and promoting human rights in Australia.