The High Court sentences journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam to 20 years rigorous imprisonment for publishing articles that caused “racial hatred” and promoted terrorism, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Tissainayagam was arrested in March 2008 and detained in police custody for five months before he was charged with an offence. He and two colleagues were eventually accused of bringing the government into disrepute (a charge that was later dropped) and inciting racial and ethnic animosities through material published in a short-lived monthly magazine called the North East Herald. Tissainayagam and his co-defendants were indicted in August 2008 for alleged violations of the PTA and the Emergency Regulations.
Tissainayagam’s indictment was based on passages from two articles which expressed critical opinions about the government’s treatment of Tamil civilians affected by armed conflict. A July 2006 editorial headlined, “Providing security to Tamils now will define northeastern politics of the future” concluded that “it is fairly obvious that the government is not going to offer them any protection. In fact it is the state security forces that are the main perpetrator of the killings.” A second article published in November 2006 addressed the humanitarian situation in the eastern town of Vaharai, where warfare included attacks on civilian areas. It accused the government of starving and endangering civilians to further political and strategic military objectives.
Sources
Jail term for Sri Lankan editor, BBC, 31 August 2009; Sri Lanka jails journalist who criticised war policy, The Independent, 1 September 2009; Sri Lanka reporter gets 20 years on ‘terror’ charge, AFP, 31 August 2009; Sri Lanka jails journalist for 20 years for exercising his right to freedom of expression, Amnesty International, 1 September 2009; The price of truth, The Economist, 3 September 2009.
Quotations
“This is a travesty of justice. This is a direct attack against freedom of expression. I may be hauled up for contempt for saying this but I don’t mind because someone has to say it. I am appalled and saddened that Sri Lanka is closing its doors to international standards relating to freedom of expression,” Rights activist and lawyer, Nimalka Fernando.
“The constitution guarantees media freedom, but no one has a right to deliberately publish false reports that would lead to communal violence,” government prosecutor, Sudarshana de Silva.
“He was never a racist and he at no time tried to arouse hatred. This is a good lesson for all journalists to be cautious when writing in future. He lost his job in the 1980s when talking about labour union rights. Now, he lost his freedom when talking about Tamil rights,” Tissainayagam’s lawyer, Anil Silva.
“In every corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed: from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, Burma to Uzbekistan, Cuba to Eritrea. Emblematic examples of this distressing reality are figures like J.S. Tissainayagam in Sri Lanka, or Shi Tao and Hu Jia in China,” President Obama in a White House issued a statement to mark Press Freedom Day.
Related documents
Tissainayagam’s written submission
High Court Judgement in English
Related events
23 May 2008
6 January 2009
8 January 2009
