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NEWSCASTER: [Speaking Sinhala].

MARCO WERMAN: That's a clip from today's Sinhala language news broadcast from our production partners, the BBC World Service. It also has a daily broadcast in Sri Lanka's other main language, Tamil.

NEWSCASTER: [Speaking Tamil].

WERMAN: Both broadcasts are reporting extensively on the news out of Sri Lanka. The Tamil and Sinhala news teams work closely together to bring international news to Sri Lanka's two main language groups. The editors of the two language services actually share a desk. They are Manivannan Thirumalai who runs the BBC's Tamil Service and Priyath Liyanage who runs the Sinhala Service. Gentlemen, welcome to you both.

MANIVANNAN THIRUMALAI: Thank you.

PRIYATH LIYANAGE: Yes.

WERMAN: I have to say, first of all I have a really hard time imagining what the office politics have been like especially in the last week. What about today, for example. The President of Sri Lanka named today a holiday so people could celebrate the military's victory against the Tamil Tigers. Mani, I mean, you're with the Tamil Service. It's hard to imagine the Tamil broadcast being totally celebratory in its coverage. Am I right?

MANIVANNAN: It cannot be celebratory with Sinhala. It doesn't really matter which language you are broadcasting. And even if you are an English outlet, you can't celebrate this kind of things. The point, be true to the daily news, and they are sort of complicit to class a holiday to celebrate what he calls as terrorism. That's fine. We treat it as such and it doesn't mean that that kind of celebration should percolate for the Tamil section of the BBC.

WERMAN: Mani, have you ever disagreed with your colleagues over in the Sinhala Service on how a story should be covered?

MANIVANNAN: Not only in the Sinhala Service, even in Tamil team as well. These are professional disagreements. These are not ethnic disagreements, I would say. If there is a particular story on which the Sinhala colleague and I differ, we do discuss it professionally, and try to arrive at some kind of a neutral ground about how we can treat the story, you know, programs. It's not a bout taking sides, basically. It's about what kind of a man will you take to tell the story to your own audiences.

WERMAN: I mean, it sounds like one big happy family. Maybe the government of Sri Lanka should have come to the services of the BBC to find out how to get along.

MANIVANNAN: They should come. They are very welcome to do so.

WERMAN: It's kind of ironic that we're talking with two gentlemen from the two language services who represent Sri Lanka because wasn't the issue of language rights something that sparked this conflict years ago to begin with.

MANIVANNAN: Yes, it was. In 1956, Sinhala Only Act. But it's not about language policies alone. It's about the minority Tamil's sense of alienation from the state. Their representation in various domicles including the Sri Lankan army, the police, the judiciary, etc. and, of course, provincial autonomy, more powers for the provinces. Well, these are major political issues and if the Sri Lankan government addresses these grievances in a meaningful way, I'm sure that the future will be bright for Sri Lanka.

WERMAN: Priyath, do you share those concerns?

PRIYATH: The thing is there are so many different issues. There are professionals who are Tamils. There are judges, there are ministers, there are doctors, engineers, but it is, I think, in the poorer classes who are living in the north of Sri Lanka and east of Sri Lanka, who are not getting the opportunities, and who are actually being exploited by politicians and the nationalism and the race issue had been a huge issue in politics and it's been exploited by politicians throughout the last few decades.

WERMAN: Were your respective language services able to get reporters into the trouble zones in Sri Lanka, especially in recent months?

MANIVANNAN: No, no because the government blocked and banned all European journalists from entering the war zone.

WERMAN: Do you have anybody there now?

MANIVANNAN: No, we don't have.

PRIYATH: This is Priyath. I think, you know, it was very difficult. We had two sides lying to us or telling what they wanted all the world to hear. Like the Tamil Tigers were saying one version and the government was saying another version. We were just merely reporting both sides of the story, and at the same time in Sri Lanka, the people were flooded with information which was propaganda. They didn't know what was really going on. So they were waiting for us to give information and we were also struggling.

WERMAN: This was a 30-year civil war. I'd like to know how both of you were affected by it.

PRIYATH: I'm Priyath, of the Sinhala Service. For me, you know, it is a personal story because I grew up in Sri Lanka and the capital, Colombo. I had Tamil friends and I grew up with them and whatever happened, you know, I saw what was coming and we were helpless in a way. In 1983, when the communal riots happened, the turning point of the war, my house was burned down and we were protecting Tamil families. And even now, you know, because we work for the BBC and being Sinhala and many people can't understand, even people in the government can't understand that the BBC Sinhala Services is not supporting the government. They think, you know, if you are giving a voice to the Tamil Tigers as well as the government, we are traitors. So, my family has been affected, my brothers and sisters and my mother, even were told off by neighbors, relatives. Even now, you know, there are people in my family who doesn't talk to me because I'm not taking their side of the war.

WERMAN: Priyath Liyanage runs the BBC Sinhala Service and Manivannan Thirumalai runs the BBC's Tamil Service. Thank you very much.

MANIVANNAN: Thank you.

PRIYATH: Thank you.

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