Recently a special "Puthu Velicham" programme was shown on IBC Tamil TV, where the Puthu Velicham presenter, Dinesh, interviewed the head of IBC Tamil, Niraj David, and the former head of IBC Tamil, Para Prabha about the anti-IBC Tamil & Lebara propaganda by different writers and websites.

The reason behind the anti-IBC Tamil & Lebara propaganda is due to an episode of the popular "Vanakkam Thainaadu" programme aired on IBC Tamil TV. In the episode the Sri Lankan army is shown, who has given blood to Tamils, and the Sri Lankan army is portrayed in a positive way. This has made many Eelam Tamils angry abroad because many still remember what the Sri Lankan army brutally did in May 2009 to tousands of innocent Tamils during the final war to end the Tamil liberation struggle against the Sinhala oppression of the minority Tamils in the island. Tousands of Eelam Tamils were killed by the army and war crimes were committed against Eelam Tamils.

The "Vanakkam Thainaadu" programme is produced by a journalist called Rishi with his team in the IBC Tamil Jaffna division. Pictures have also been released where he shake hands with some army officers during the recordings of the episode.

Not only Eelam Tamils abroad got hurt of this episode - but also staffs of IBC Tamil in UK asked how this could happen and why the episode was allowed to be aired on IBC Tamil TV.

Niraj David has explained that it was a big mistake and also apologized in an official statement on Facebook - and now also through the Puthu Velicham programme. He also told the viewers that IBC Tamil management has allowed the producers of the different programmes on IBC Tamil TV to produce programmes without many restrictions and that they didn't expect such episode of Vanakkam Thainaadu would be produced. It was also a big mistake that the episode was aired without approval, and Niraj David said that they would try not to make the same mistake again in the future.

It was also said in the Puthu Velicham programme that Eelam Tamils could always call IBC Tamil and talk with them directly about the problem and if they have questions instead of believing the propaganda work done by some elements in the Tamil and Sinhala society who wants to destroy the good name of IBC Tamil and its growing popularity.

Even if IBC Tamil management has apologized for the mistake, some websites/writers still continue their anti-IBC Tamil/Lebara propaganda, and a viewer who got the chance to express his opinion in Puthu Velicham programme told that a website backed by Lyca was one of them and before he could tell more about it, his call was ended by IBC Tamil, as they didn't want any names of other competing companies/writers in the programme.

It is noticable that Lyca is running a Tamil TV-station in Europe called Athavan TV, and for some years ago Lyca management was revealed in having friendship with the former Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, family. Mahinda Rajapaksa was in power as president in 2009 where he ended the civil war in a brutally way and killed a lot of Eelam Tamils.
The people behind the propaganda of IBC Tamil also tells Tamil people that IBC Tamil is running a Sinhala service, called Gagana, and that Lebara Play is telecasting the private-owned Sri Lankan Sinhala channel, Sirasa TV. IBC Tamil management's answer to that is that when Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was in power before 2009, they did also have Sinhala radio broadcasts and news in Sinhala on National TV of Tamileelam (NTT). So to tell the Tamil view of the problems in Sri Lanka to Sinhala people, an Eelam Tamils owned Sinhala media was nescessary.
Here it is also remarkable that Lyca TV IPTV service telecasts the Sri Lankan national Tamil TV service called Nethra TV from Rupavahini group, anti-Eelam channels like DAN Tamil Oli, Vasantham TV and DAN News.

IBC Tamil is the only Tamil media in Europe, who is operating a high quality Tamil TV channel from UK by Eelam Tamils with a united presence of popular wellknown presenters in Europe.

The whole "Puthe Velicham" episode can be watched here:

Part 1:
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Part 2:
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- MEDIA ASIA