An Officer from ABC TV Audience and Consumer Affairs, Kieran Doyle belatedly apologised to a viewer for an inaccurate and misleading statement on history of Tamils in Sri Lanka telecasted on 18th of May 2009. Doyle said, "The ABC acknowledges your concern with this report and agrees that it was inaccurate and misleading to refer to the history of Tamil ethnicity with the statement “many descendents of labour imported bythe British two centuries ago by the Sinhalese majority”. The ABC apologises for this error." The reason is described as "I am advised by ABC News management that time constraints prevented a more detailed account of this history."

ABC TV Reply

Dear <Deleted>,

Thank you for your email.

The ABC acknowledges your concern with this report and agrees that it was inaccurate and misleading to refer to the history of Tamil ethnicity with the statement “many descendents of labour imported bythe British two centuries ago by the Sinhalese majority”. The ABC apologises for this error.

The ABC understands that Sri Lankan Tamils have lived on the island since the 2nd century and that most modern Sri Lankan Tamils descend from the Jaffna Kingdom. I am advised by ABC News management that
time constraints prevented a more detailed account of this history.

The program has attached an editor’s note to the online transcript of the report explaining the error. The matter has also been noted on the ABC News corrections page. http://abc.net.au/news/corrections/

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Yours sincerely

Kieran Doyle
Audience and Consumer Affairs

Extracts - Original Complaint

The following is the original complaint sent to the ABC TV 7.30 Report Team on the 18th of May:

I wish to inform the 7.30 Report Team that the historical information provided on the Sri Lankan conflict was incor! rect. The Tamils of the island are descendents of Tamils from South India who migrated to the island over millennia and NOT ONLY THE PLANTATION WORKERS brought to the island by the British relatively recently. I am disappointed that the 7.30 Report which I held in high esteem as a world class,
unbiased and well researched news program could get simple historic facts wrong. Please rectify this, as you have reported incorrect information about the Sri Lankan Tamils who have a long and rich history that spans some two thousand years. Please conduct more research on the subject or for a brief overview log on to the BBC website given below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1166237.stm