A Right to Information, in Which Language?

The official website for RTI in Sri Lanka provides RTI forms of different kinds in three different languages. Upon downloading and viewing an ‘Information Application’ form (RTI-01 form) from the website, one will find that part 07 in the form is “Language in which requestor prefers access”. This allows the applicant to specify which of the three languages (predominantly used in Sri Lanka) they wish to receive the reply to their information requestin.

Despite making this specification, however, the information requestor cannot always be sure of obtaining the required information from the public authority in her/his desired language. A similar experience has been encountered on many occasions when the language in which the requestor prefers access is specified in the RTI form; rather than the language option specified in the form, both the ‘decision pending’ letter and the letter with the actual information in it have been received by the requestor in a language other than the one they stated in the application form.

In order to find out more about the public authorities’ (PAs’) hiring practices with regard to their RTI services, a Right to Information application was filed with the Right to Information Commission of Sri Lanka.

The application inquired whether all public authorities in Sri Lanka make sure to employ information officers who are capable of answering RTI application in Sinhala, Tamil and English. The RTI Commission answered that it is the responsibility of the public authority to appoint a suitable senior officer as the information officer.

It was also asked what actions are taken if a public authority does not have an information officer employed who can provide information in the language requested in the RTI application. To this, the Commission answered that PAs employ language translators to do translation work. A point worth noting is that the reply also included the statement that Public Authorities have to respond to any correspondence in the language it has been submitted (Sinhala, Tamil or English).