WB funded E-Sri Lanka project ignores Tamil journalists-SLTMA

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 March 2005, 11:08 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLTMA) said the Tamil media journalists are ignored in the computer-training programme of the E- Sri Lanka Project of the Government's Information Technology Institute, which is funded by the World Bank (WB). SLTMA General Secretary Mr.R.Barathi in a statement appealed to the World Bank and the office of the Prime Minister to intervene in this matter and to take corrective steps to include Tamil media personnel in the training programme, SLTMA sources said.

"E-Sri Lanka Project, which comes under the Prime Minister's Secretariat, recently launched a scheme to provide computer training in information technology to media personnel. But it called for applications only from journalists of Sinhala and English media and not from Tamil media. The E-Sri Lanka Project published advertisements calling for applications only in Sinhala and English language newspapers and not in Tamil newspapers. This clearly reflects that officials of E-Sri Lanka Project are not keen in providing computer training to Tamil media personnel. We consider this act as a deliberate attempt to ignore Tamil media personnel in the training, which is funded by the World Bank," the statement added.

The international funding agencies must ensure that projects, which receive funds from them, serve all communities alike without showing discrimination to Tamil speaking in the country, the statement stressed.

SLTMA has brought to the notice of the government and international aid agencies that calling applications for training only from Sinhala and English media personnel is a clear violation of the country's constitution, which gives parity of status to Tamil language also.