Ethirajan Anbarasan, UNESCO Courier journalist
Sri Lankan refugees who arrived in western Europe in the early 1980s often found it difficult to adapt to life in countries they knew little about.
The TRT television channel launched in June 1997 serves Sri Lankan emigrants living in western Europe, South Africa, Mauritius and Réunion.
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The free press may doubtless be good or bad, but without freedom it will never be anything but bad. Albert
Camus, |
A Paris-based radio and
television channel keeps Sri Lankan Tamils abreast of news from home while helping
them adapt to life abroad
Rasaiah Yoganathan, a 40-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil, arrived in Marseilles
last year without valid immigration papers after fleeing his country’s ethnic conflict.
However, Yoganathan’s efforts to explain his tenuous situation to the local authorities
proved futile, as he could not speak French.
A month passed and Yoganathan decided to write to the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva explaining his plight. The ICRC responded to his request
and asked him to provide documentary evidence justifying his case. Unfortunately,
the reply was in French and Yoganathan was unable to understand it.
It was then that he came upon a Tamil radio broadcast from Paris in which there was
a phone-in programme addressing issues related to obtaining a stay permit or refugee
status in France. Yoganathan immediately called to seek their help. He received guidance
and assistance in obtaining his papers and is now living in France with his family.
Yoganathan’s case is not an isolated one. For more than half a million Sri Lankan
Tamils—most of them refugees—living in western Europe, the Paris-based Tamil Radio
and Television (TRT) network not only functions as a news source and an entertainment
channel but most importantly helps them to better cope with living abroad. Because
the continent’s mainstream media takes little interest in their affairs, Tamils also
say that TRT has given them a voice and an identity in their adopted countries.
Started in January 1997 as a limited company by journalists and professionals from
the Tamil community in Europe, TRT focuses mainly on news and current affairs. There
are hourly news bulletins in Tamil devoted primarily to the Sri Lankan situation,
followed by current affairs in the subcontinent and other parts of the world. The
radio channel was an instant success among Tamils in Europe, who until then had no
other daily source of information about their homeland.
Wanting
to feel at home
TRT is more than a
traditional news provider. In a weekly programme called “Udhavuvoma” (“Can we help?”),
it invites experts to answer queries in Tamil on how to obtain work permits and on
other administrative issues. “They don’t just ask about immigration problems; they
are often looking for information about matters ranging from divorce to school admission,”
says Sagadevan, an expert on French legal affairs who hosts this weekly programme.
On the lighter side, the channel also airs interviews with Sri Lankan and Indian
celebrities, literary reviews, sports and popular cultural programmes. Live coverage
of community cultural events and festivals organized in Europe is attracting a growing
number of listeners. TRT also made arrangements with a local Tamil radio station
in Canada so that its programmes could reach the 100,000-strong Tamil community living
there.
“The overwhelming support from our people encouraged us to start a 24-hour television
channel six months after we launched the radio,” says Guhanathan Sabapathy Suppaiah,
director-general of the TRT network.
Started with an investment of $5 million in June 1997, TRT’s television channel today
boasts over 7,000 subscribers, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils living in western Europe.
Its programmes are beamed across Europe as well as to South Africa, Mauritius and
the island of Réunion where there is a sizeable Tamil expatriate population.
TRT officials claim they have an estimated viewing audience of between 50,000 and
60,000 people. The channel is free-to-air in places like Mauritius and Réunion.
An
alternative to Western films and serials
Unlike radio, TRT television
charges its subscribers in Europe about $25 per month, mostly to meet operating costs.
At the Paris headquarters, there are about 20 full-time staff members and some 50
freelancers working round the clock. TRT has its own correspondents in the Tamil-dominated
northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka, in southern India and in major west European
cities, where there is a substantial population of Sri Lankan Tamils. The television
channel also has a production unit in India.
What prompted such a large-scale venture? “Our primary objective is to inform our
people about what is happening at home and to address the problems of our community
now scattered in various parts of Europe,” says Guhanathan.
Sri Lankan Tamil refugees started arriving in Europe in the early 1980s after fleeing
the ethnic conflict in their country. Britain, France and Germany took in most of
them. Making a livelihood in the host country was their prime concern. Then came
wrangling with officials for visas and work permits for family members. Without any
knowledge of the area or the country in which they were living, they often found
it hard to become accustomed to conditions there. Their first community newspaper,
Eelanadu, was published in 1991 in Paris and carried news reports about Sri Lanka
as well as local community events.
To attract the younger generation, TRT introduced popular feature films, classical
music and soap operas produced by Indian television channels as well as Tamil pop
and rap music. Viewers can ask to hear their favourite songs or pose a question to
an actor or actress during phone-in programmes. TRT also regularly broadcasts programmes
produced by the Madras-based Sun TV channel. “Previously we used to ask our parents
about our music and dance traditions. Now we often watch them on TRT,” says Amirthavarshini,
a university student living in Paris.
The channel also provides the younger generation with an incentive to learn Tamil.
“Until TRT came along, my cousins, who were born here, were not interested in listening
to Tamil songs and movies. Now they are regular TRT viewers. As a result, they have
also picked up the language,” says 55-year-old Fernando Thobias, who works at the
Hotel Méridien in Paris. Among other things, TRT offers an alternative to
Western films and serials, which Tamils sometimes find offensive. “They were eagerly
looking for something close to their culture which TRT now provides,” says Sivabalan,
who has been living in Paris for the last 15 years and often takes part in the channel’s
literary programme. In addition, TRT’s phone-in programmes help displaced Sri Lankan
Tamils to get back in touch with their friends and relatives living in different
countries.
Community
support
Some might wonder why
it took so long for the Tamils to start up their own radio and television channel.
“We came here as refugees. At that time, survival was our first priority,” says TRT’s
Guhanathan. “It’s only recently that some of our people have started to branch out
into different areas, which has given us a greater sense of confidence.” TRT mainly
depends on Indian satellite channels for its film-based programmes and most of those
networks were started after 1992. It was perfect timing, since by then the Tamils
were in a position—both technically and financially—to start up and operate their
network.
But TRT is not without its problems. Commercials are not generating sufficient revenue
to run the network, which costs about $800,000 a year. But TRT officials stress that
their aim is not to make a profit but primarily to serve the community. They are
confident that once the subscriber base enlarges, they will be able to generate enough
revenue to run the network.
Although TRT officials maintain that their network provides only news and cultural
programmes, critics assert that some of the content supports Tamil Tiger rebels who
are fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka.
During the conflict that raged late last year in the Wanni region of northern Sri
Lanka, TRT appealed to its viewers to help the thousands of displaced Tamil refugees.
There was an overwhelming response from the channel’s audience in Europe as well
as in Canada: donations added up to about $400,000 and were sent to the displaced
population in Sri Lanka.
With overwhelming support from the community, TRT now has ambitious plans to build
“broadcasting bridges that reach out to Tamils around the world.” As Thulasi Mageswaran,
a 14-year-old student from London, puts it, “I feel proud to tell my non-Tamil friends
that this channel exists and especially that it is run by Tamils.”
