Online news website malaysiakini today launched its Tamil video section with the first video focussing on complaints by Indian traders over Deepavali stall allocations in Kuala Lumpur.

The 10-minute episode titled ' Indian traders stall allocations - the real story ' can be viewed on malaysiakini.tv .

The video marks malaysiakini 's foray in providing Tamil news content. Instead of producing a text-based news section, malaysiakini 's Tamil news will be in video.

"Based on our feedback, more people can understand spoken rather than written Tamil. It made more sense for us to provide video in Tamil," says website CEO Premesh Chandran.

The malaysiakini.tv Tamil section will have regular news features as well as interviews with popular figures. "We are still at the initial stages, but we hope to be more regular in our programming by early next year."

Given that many Tamil speakers may not have access to the Internet, malaysiakini plans to also make the content available on VCDs (digital discs).

"Video is a popular format. Most households, even those in the lower-income group, have a television and VCD player. We hope to work with distributors to make the content available to them."

The pilot stage of the project is being assisted by the German foundation Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF).

FNF has been working in Malaysia for many years, including a programme on the establishment of Community Centres for the empowerment of Indian woman in Malaysia, in cooperation with ERA Consumer Malaysia.

The centres focused on the empowerment of Indian women through improved income, enhanced family/community support, improved mental and physical health as well as legal support

Truly Malaysia

The Tamil video project will be implemented by K Indra and W Ubaraj.

With the launch of the Tamil video section, malaysiakini now offers content in four major local languages - English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil.

Malaysiakini went live in English in 1999. This was followed by the launch of its Bahasa Malaysia website in 2004, and a Chinese website last year, making it the first media organisation to provide news in three languages.

"We want malaysiakini to be a 'Truly Malaysia' website which truly reflects our rich diversity. As such, we want to ensure all Malaysian communities to have access to independent news," said malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan.

"As we build our Tamil-language section, we will also be looking at producing content in other Malaysian languages, especially for communities in Sabah and Sarawak," he said.

"However, this will depend on how we can effectively develop partnerships with journalists and producers who are fluent in these languages."