06/21/2010
|
International Federation of Journalists
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is relieved that J.S. Tissainayagam is safe, following more than two years of an ordeal in which the Sri Lankan Tamil journalist was accused, charged and tried for terrorism for his journalistic reporting on human rights issues.
06/19/2010
|
Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, June 19, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalist welcomes the arrival in the United States of Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who arrived at Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Saturday morning. He was met there by friends. According to CPJ representative Kamel Labidi, who was on hand to meet Tissa, “He was all smiles, and said to thank everyone who helped him gain his freedom.”
03/24/2010
|
BBC
A Sri Lankan Tamil has been named foreign journalist of the year at the British Press Awards in London.
01/13/2010
|
BBC
A Sri Lankan newspaper editor jailed for 20 years has left prison for the first time since March 2008 after a court ordered him to be freed on bail.
bail, freedom of speech, jail, journalism, media, prison, PTA, release, Tamil, Tissa
01/11/2010
|
BBC
A Sri Lankan Tamil journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison last year will be released on bail pending appeal, his lawyer has said.
01/11/2010
|
Lines
Against the backdrop of minority voters being potential king makers in the upcoming elections, there was an announcement in Colombo today that Tissainayagam would be released on bail - the Attorney General who had been blocking bail until then announced last month that he has no objections and this opened the way to the release. It is as if the Big Bad Wolf told Red Riding Hood he had become a vegetarian after eating her grandmother. In previous lines posts, contributors have drawn attention to the Tissainayagam saga as a window into the draconian marriage of racism and authoritarianism that has been the hallmark of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). This latest development underscores the extent to which the Rakapakse government added callous opportunism to complete the trinity of crimes that accompany the PTA – it served the government’s political ends to jail Tissainayagam yesterday, and it serves its political ends to release Tissanayagam today. It is not everyday that crass opportunism coincides with a journalist’s liberty – there will undoubtedly be much celebration of the latter, along side clear sighted condemnation of the former.