As of December 10, J.S. Tissainayagam, a respected Tamil journalist and editor, had served the first 100 days of a 20-year sentence in a Sri Lankan jail. In his World Press Freedom Day statement, President Obama cited Tissainayagam as an “emblematic example” of a journalist who was being persecuted. Amnesty International also named Tissainayagam a prisoner of conscience, and held a vigil for him in the U.K. in early September.
Yet the hopes for Tissainayagam’s release grow dimmer by the day. His case is attracting attention — and outcry — because it is the first known instance in the democratic world of a journalist being charged under the provisions of an anti-terror law.
Writing as an Act of Terrorism
J.S. Tissainayagam wrote for the North Eastern Monthly Magazine and the Sunday Times in Sri Lanka, and is the founder of the website Outreachsl.com. He was arrested on March 7, 2008 and held without charges for six months. On August 25, 2008, he was indicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act on three counts.
The Judicial process lasted a further 12 months and on August 31, 2009, Tissainayagam was found guilty on all three counts. He was sentenced to 20 years of “rigorous imprisonment.” The National Post of Canada wrote an editorial defending Tissainayagam and calling for his release. This is how the Post explained the Sri Lankan government’s case against him:
While he is accused of having taken money from the outlawed (and brutal) Tamil Tigers to operate a website providing the Tamil version of facts about the civil war, Mr. Tissainayagam’s main crime seems to have been writing two articles in the now-defunct Northeastern Monthly magazine in 2006 and 2007 criticizing the Sri Lankan persecution of the Tamils, who were seeking an independent homeland in the north-east corner of the island nation.
Mr. Tissainayagam criticized wartime tactics employed by Sri Lankan leaders, including the alleged withholding of food, medicine and other essential items from Tamil areas as a way to strike back at the Tigers. He also complained that the Sri Lankan army was conducting extrajudicial executions — murdering civilian Tamils as a warning to the Tigers that Colombo was not to be messed with and a caution to ordinary Tamils not to abet the Tigers.
None of the charges stated that Tissainayagam received funds from a terrorist organization, nor was he accused of funding terrorist organizations. Neither his coerced confession nor the evidence presented in court revealed that he had received funds from the Tamil Tigers. Therefore, it seems that his only act of terrorism was his writing — a dangerous precedent.
Lack of Press Freedom in Sri Lanka
Inside of Sri Lanka, state media are providing biased accounts of the situation. This isn’t surprising, as the president controls the state media and uses them to campaign against the opposition. This is putting other Sri Lankan journalists in danger.
During the opposition United National Party’s convention in Colombo on December 5, seven journalists working for state TV stations Rupavahini and ITN were slightly injured and their equipment was damaged when they were manhandled outside the location of the meeting. UNP leader Ravi Karunanayake said his party was not involved in the violence, and confirmed that the journalists had not been invited to the meeting. It is still not known who was responsible for this act. Meanwhile, in November, the three main Tamil dailies in Jaffna received threatening letters accusing them of playing into the hands of “terrorists.”
On the eve of the commemoration of International Human Rights Day on December 10, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that “the Obama Administration is dedicated to upholding the tenets of the Universal Declaration at home and championing them abroad through a policy of principled engagement.” This policy must be followed in Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, there will be no post-war reconciliation if a Tamil intellectual such as Tissainayagam can be found guilty of such baseless charges. Tamil journalists, human rights activists, politicians and other groups will naturally feel at risk if they too can be jailed at any time for 20 years. Clearly, the use of the anti-terrorist act in this instance is an attempt to intimidate government critics.
The United States must include Tissainayagam’s release as a benchmark for the restoration of the rule of law in Sri Lanka. Without press freedom and freedom of expression, the country will never be united, peaceful and on the right track for economic development and good governance.
Another Journalist in Danger
Tissainayagam is far from the only journalist suffering in Sri Lanka. Below is a video interview with Frederica Jansz, the new editor-in-chief and news editor of the independent Sri Lankan weekly, The Sunday Leader. She received death threats 10 months after Lasantha Wickrematunge, her predecessor, was murdered. No real investigation has been made regarding his case:
Clothilde Le Coz has been working for Reporters Without Borders in Paris since 2007. She is now the Washington director for this organization, helping to promote press freedom and free speech around the world. In Paris, she was in charge of the Internet Freedom desk and worked especially on China, Iran, Egypt and Thailand. During the time she spent in Paris, she was also updating the “Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents,” published in 2005. Her role is now to get the message out for readers and politicians to be aware of the constant threat journalists are submitted to in many countries.
View Comments (30)
Ajith,
Tamil identity it self is a secular identity. Tamil is not an ethnic group but it is a language. The Tamil identity has Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and many other religions. The Tamil Muslims are Arabs traders speaking Tamils or mixed with the population that originally spoke Tamil. There is a considerable amount colonial mixture to the Tamils who practice Christianity. There is considerable amount of Brahmin (so called “Aryan” race) mixture to the Tamils.
LTTE did not seek to create a mono-ethnic state as there is no mono-ethnic population in the Tamil identity. LTTE adored and protected the Tamil language (identity), because the Tamil identity was the target of Sri Lankan government and its Sinhalese population to completely assert its domination over the island and proclaim it as a Sinhala-Buddhist state.
LTTE never created the struggle of the Tamil speaking people to self-determination. The successive Sinhala government of Sri Lanka’s policies and violence on the Tamils pushed the Tamil speaking people for self-determination which eventually resulted in the creation of LTTE by the Tamils speaking people to protect themselves.
Ajith,
Tamil identity it self is a secular identity. Tamil is not an ethnic group but it is a language. The Tamil identity has Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and many other religions. The Tamil Muslims are Arabs traders speaking Tamils or mixed with the population that originally spoke Tamil. There is a considerable amount colonial mixture to the Tamils who practice Christianity. There is considerable amount of Brahmin (so called “Aryan” race) mixture to the Tamils.
LTTE did not seek to create a mono-ethnic state as there is no mono-ethnic population in the Tamil identity. LTTE adored and protected the Tamil language (identity), because the Tamil identity was the target of Sri Lankan government and its Sinhalese population to completely assert its domination over the island and proclaim it as a Sinhala-Buddhist state.
LTTE never created the struggle of the Tamil speaking people to self-determination. The successive Sinhala government of Sri Lanka’s policies and violence on the Tamils pushed the Tamil speaking people for self-determination which eventually resulted in the creation of LTTE by the Tamils speaking people to protect themselves.
Tissainayagam case is another example of how the legal system is manipulated by the Sinhalese government of Sri Lankan to suppress the Tamils lawfully while most of them are being tortured to death by the occupying Sri Lankan armed forces. I say the only solution is to free the Tamil people and charge every single Sinhalese on the island of racisms, hate crime and war crimes until they can prove themselves that they are innocent. That island needs to be filtered and racists Sinhalese put in jail for minimum 20 years of hard labor.
For the past 35 years Sri Lanka has been ruled under the PTA.Its horror effects on ethnic minority Tamils makes the crimes committed against persons even under Apartheid South Africa seem light. Murder, mass murder, rape against its citizens by the Sinhala forces had been regularised under this draconian legislation without recourse to habeas corpus which has been buried. On top of that is the badly failed governance by governments since independence against all its citizens, particularly Tamils, based on age old historical legends which are trotted out by politicians with relish to rabble rouse the voters by preying on their emotions to win elections and power!. If anyone wants to get more details they should read all about it on the internet.The Chemmani mass graves in 1995 to the recent Wanni massacre stand as living testimony of what amounts to genocide by SL governments.No wonder it moves heaven and earth to evade investigation by the UN by hook or by crook by cultivating governments under various means and which have poor human rights records.
One of the early victims of failed governance in SL had been free and fair reportage and journalism. Poor Tissanayagam who was earlier much appreciated in the south during the JVP uprising when an estimated 40,000 Sinhala citizens were mass murdered by the state's military, including by then human rights lawyers (including Mahinda Rajapakse?) even before the PTA was formulated for his crtical accounts when people's human rights had been trampled upon. Free journalism was OK then!
But why maltreat him in this manner now just because he did his duty and obeyed his conscience when it came to his own people.
Not one of the state's military had been brought to justice since 1983 except for the rape and murder of a teenage girl Krishanty Kumaraswamy, his aunt and brother in 1995 when a corporal was found guilty and sentenced to death. In his defence in court he cited: "why am I the only person to be condemned when 'others' are responsible for mass graves of Tamil youths such as at Chemmani! The condemned Corporal led the police to Chemmani and bodies were unearthed and there were international lawyers involved. The case is still open! Has the Attorney General forgotten that case? Since then many more mass graves were reported in the world news coverage.
The lesson: muzzle the press under contrived legislation such as PTA and this coupled with failed govearnce releases all hell to be let loose by the state on disadvantaged people!
It may be one section of people or person today it may be your turn tommorrow!That is why democracy is not only about elections but also enabling provisions such as the Rule of Law, justice and a free press are so vital.
The earlier Tissanayagam receives a fair Judicial Review the better for all citizens.
Shame on you PBS for writing such an article supporting a convicted terrorist supporter. This evil fellow was on the payroll of LTTE terrorists. His bank records prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. I will think again during next PBS fund drive about contributing to an organization romanticizing terrorists.
Please do a simple exercise, folks! Replace the word LTTE with Al Qaeda and see what you think of the article.
Cheers!
J. Tissanayagam was found guilty on all of the following 3 charges:
1) Attempting to cause the commission of acts of violence or racial or communal disharmony with clear intentions of causing disrepute to the government, an act of conspiracy.
2) Attempting to cause the commission of acts of violence or racial or communal disharmony relating to articles he published in the North Eastern Monthly magazine in 2006 and 2007, and
3) Collecting and obtaining information for the purpose of terrorism and raising funds for the purpose of terrorism through the collection of funds for the said magazine.
He was given successive sentences of 5, 5 and 10 years rigorous imprisonment, respectively on each charge.
The prosecution showed that Tissanayagam had strong links with the LTTE and supported it through his actions, for which he was indicted.
Cheers!
Good article, btw the Sri Lankan govt has been equally (and sometimes more) ruthless with Sinhalese journalists as well
A Sinhalese journalist (Lasantha Wickramatunga) was murdered this year and there was a good New York Times editorial "Letter from the grave" on his death.
See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/opinion/19mon3.html which talks about why Wickramatunga said that he was willing to do his job as a journalist even though it meant that his life was at risk.
Also see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/world/asia/13iht-lanka.1.19312620.html
That article says -
Lasantha Wickramatunga, a prominent Sri Lankan journalist and outspoken critic of the government's war on ethnic Tamil rebels, knew he was marked for death - and thought he knew why.
Three days after he was shot and killed, his newspaper published a haunting, self-written obituary on Sunday in which Wickramatunga says he was targeted for his writings and adds: "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."
Tamil Habitat of Humanity is misled by global society.
Ajith's posting sumarized it all. LTTE was a black NAZI fascist group. The fact that he associates black with Nazi shows the racism found among south asians. They look down on darker skinner people and this has as much to do with the fight in Sri Lanka as anything else. The Sinhalease consider themselves 'Aryans' and there has always been jealousy due to the dark Tamils success in business, science and medicine. This success was frowned upon in a country where Sinhalease were majority. This lead to killing in the 60s, 70s and finally the major riots of the 80s. This happened before LTTE had even support among the Tamils. LTTE was formed as a result of majority and governmental discrimination. It is sad that my community still has not recognized our sins upon the Tamils.
There are a few Sinhalese speaking agaist the reality others are waiting for the paradize to return without addressing the REAL issues of Sri Lanka. Sinhalese majority input is badly needed to address the real issues with the regime. If LTTE is facist in the eyes of Sinhalese just compare LTTE with the military of Sri Lanka. As per the statistics provided by the comments above mass graves of Chemmany, victims of JVP uprising and Vanni massacre death toll put together shows how much respect Sri Lanka has for human life & dignity. Why blame the LTTE while they defended the Tamil people of the North of Sri Lanka. Surely there is a major fault in governing Sri Lanka since independence. Victims are the innocent civilians, politicians play the game of chess while in parliament and walk away with a golden hand shake after degrading Sri Lanka even further.
Sri Lanka needs many more Lasanthas & Tissainayagams to show reality on the ground so that Sri Lanka will be compelled to tidy up their actions. Praising Sri Lanka even when much evidence of violations is cetainly not patriotic. "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter" MLK.
Taking humanitarians and reporters into prison can bring no paradize but further evil in my view.
Oh Makeswaran! (I know you are a hardline Sihalese though you use Tamil name):
Okay, you forced me to write another comment in this thread.....you got to seriously change if you would ever see a united SL. It's because of people like you, SL is still a third world country though it has tremendous potential...Don't ever compare the laws of the lands in the west with Sri Lanka's kangaroo court rules. Can you write something like this against the SL Govt and within the framework of the so called "rule of the land"?? You definetly know that you will be shot/hammered the next day right? That's the difference brother. You enjoy writing here because directly/indirectly you know that you're protected.
You know what happened to Lasantha, Sivaram, BBC Tamil service reporter and a whole bunch of other journalists.....If it doesn't make any sense, well, then ask SL kanagaroo court to give Saratha a 20 yr prison term too (as I started hearing the chorus 'traitor')!
It brought tears when I read about one of the Sri Lankan leaders giggled when Sonali (the slain editor Lasantha's wife) inquired the Defence Secretary about her husband.
http://unbowedandunafraid.com/uusite/440131
The peace in Sri Lanka remains elusive with the rough-to-ready nature of the Sri Lankan leaders in killing journalists and hostility, vulgar triumphalism and punitive aspects towards the vulnerable groups.
People are left with no choice but to elect lesser of the evils. Well, that's the history of the country.