Radio Australia - the multilingual overseas radio service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - is little known in Australia, but is heard by millions of listeners in the Asia-Pacific region and others throughout the world, including the USA and Britain. Radio Wars is the first book to tell the story of this important but unexplored aspect of Australia's international presence.

Launched in 1939 as a propaganda tool, the service was for three decades caught uncomfortably between those who would use it as an instrument of foreign policy and those who would have it an icon of journalistic integrity. From World War II to the Vietnam War, Radio Australia's news coverage and commentary was coloured by politics and internal conflict. In a covert war, broadcasters, bureaucrats and politicians struggled for the editorial control of Radio Australia.

But the author argues that by the time of the Dili massacre, propaganda had given way to forthright and factual reporting. Spiced with anecdotal detail, Radio Wars traces a struggle that ranges from personal pettiness to events with significant political ramifications. Dr Errol Hodge raises important questions about journalism, censorship and foreign policy - questions which gain new urgency in light of Radio Australia's role in disseminating information to developing countries.