Sri Lanka’s state TV goes ‘Sinhala Only’

The old logo on the left and the new, Sinhala only logo, on the right.

The largest television broadcaster in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, has officially dropped both the Tamil and English language script from its logo, leaving the Sinhala language only on its branding.

The move, which has reportedly been approved by relevant government officials, will see yet another instance of Tamil being discriminated against by the state.

The Rupavahini logo will now only have Sinhala script, according to reports.

Last month, Sri Lankan police officers began learning Hindi, courtesy of the Indian government, despite ongoing discrimination against the Tamil language.

Tamils have frequently complained about the lack of official Tamil language services in Sri Lanka, despite claims by the government that Tamil is recognised as an official language. Across the Tamil homeland, Sri Lankan police stations are manned mostly by Sinhala officers with difficulty in accessing Tamil language services.

The issue was highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, who visited Sri Lanka last year.

“Despite the fact that Sinhala and Tamil are official languages of Sri Lanka, I have been informed that Tamil workers are often not able to report instances of abuses to the authorities such as the Police, as many Police officers only speak Sinhala and force them to file complaints in Sinhala,” said Tomoya Obokata. “This has been reported from various parts of the country."

 

 

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