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

Sources
Top Sri Lankan editor shot dead, BBC, 8 January  2009; Grievous blow to Sri Lankan media, BBC, 8 January 2009; Sri Lankan newspaper editor shot dead, The Guardian, 8 January 2009; ‘We know who is behind my death’: Sri Lankan editor continues fight from grave, The Guardian, 13 January 2009.

Quotations

“We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower,” Lasantha Wickrematunge.

“The LTTE is among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is for ever called into question by this savagery – much of it unknown to the public because of censorship,” Lasantha Wickrematunge.

“I believe it is my duty not to accept anything the government tells us at face value and it is especially our duty not to allow the press in Sri Lanka to be brow-beaten or censored. We need to tell the outside world about the horrific nature of the war in which we are currently involved,” Lasantha Wickrematunge.

“When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me. In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death,” Lasantha Wickrematunge.

“My government and I most vehemently and unequivocally condemn the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of the Sunday Leader, which took place yesterday. I am both grieved and shocked by his tragic death as Mr. Wickrematunge was a close friend of mine who I have known for many years as a courageous journalist. This heinous crime points to the grave dangers faced by the democratic social order of our country, and the existence of forces that will go to the furthest extremes in using terror and criminality to damage our social fabric and bring disrepute to the country. It is significant that such an attack was carried out at a time when the country is gaining repeated victories over the forces of terrorism, in our efforts to establish freedom and democracy throughout the country,” statement made by President Rajapakse.

“Sri Lanka has lost one of its more talented, courageous and iconoclastic journalists. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press. Sri Lanka’s image is badly sullied by this murder, which is an absolute scandal and must not go unpunished,” Reporters Without Borders.

Opinion
The murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge and Sri Lanka’s future, groundviews, 8 January 2009; And then they came for me, Sunday Leader, 11 January 2009.

Over the weekend, the BBC’s World Service asked the actor Bill Nighy to read Lasantha Wickrematunge’s final editorial for its Newshour programme.

“You will have no choice but to protect my killers”, Newshour, BBC World Service

Related events
29 April 2005
2 July 2006
9 January 2007
23 May 2008
2 January 2009
6 January 2009

Other features
Feature: Historical roots of conflict in Sri Lanka
Feature: Assassination of an activist
Feature: LTTE expels northern Muslims, 1990
Feature: “Black July”, 1983

Sources
Gunmen raid Sri Lanka TV station, BBC, 6 January 2009; Private TV station attacked in Sri Lanka: police, AFP, 6 January 2009; Armed attack on MTV, Daily Mirror, 6 January 2009

Quotations

“We strongly condemned the attack on the MTV offices and we urge the authorities to speedily investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said the president of the Working Journalists’ Association, Sanath Balasuriya.

“It’s either that the citizens of Sri Lanka are able to drive around attacking institutions armed with weapons and grenades, or there is a hand behind it,” Chevaan Daniel, MTV.

Related events
29 April 2005
2 July 2006
9 January 2007
23 May 2008
2 January 2009

Sri Lankan journalists and civil society protest against the incident and call for an immediate investigation.

Sources
Defence Reporter Abducted and Severely Beaten In Sri Lanka, International Federation of Journalists, 23 May 2008; Noyahr’s nightmare, Daily Mirror, 24 May 2008; Condemnation from all quarters, Sunday Times, 25 May 2008.

Quotations

“The Free Media Movement expresses shock and outrage that Keith Noyahr, Deputy Editor and Defence Analyst of the English weekly The Nation was abducted late evening yesterday returned home early this morning, after enduring severe physical harm. This is not just a violation of the freedom of expression and another significant blow to media freedom. It proves, as if more proof was needed, that Sri Lanka is very far from a country that protects fundamental rights and is governed by the rule of law,” Free Media Movement, Sri Lanka.

“We believe that the reason for this attack is Noyahr’s independent writing and analysis of the country’s civil war,” Poddala Jayantha, secretary of Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association.

“The way he was beaten is unprecedented. If the government can’t [bring the perpetrators to justice] we hold the government responsible for this abduction and attack,” Sunanda Deshapriya of the Free Media Movement.

Extracts from ‘Victory day not far off’, an interview with Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, 23 July 2008
Q: But it is reported that the army is behind the attack on Keith Noyahr of The Nation newspaper who had written a military story criticising the military few weeks before the attack. What do you have to say about this allegation?

A: How many other journalists write political or military columns? Why should the army attack only on Keith Noyahr. I have never seen anywhere that Keith Noyahr had said that the army had attacked him. Some people are trying to put us against him. He has never accused that the army had assaulted him. And I think perhaps he is guilty that he has done something wrong by writing against the military.

Q: Is he tight-lipped because he is supposed to be in fear of reprisals?

A: If he has not done anything wrong, he does not have to live in fear. If he has done some damage to our organisation or to a person, especially when he has done something which he is not suppose to do, then it is natural he must be living in fear. If they think that they have done something of that nature the best thing for them is to correct themselves and rectify the mistake.

Q: What is the role you expect the media to play during the time of war?

A: War or no war, the media should write in the interest of the country and not to please their favourites. The media is supposed to play a neutral role to educate people. They are not supposed to create situations where they groom people and make heroes out of them. I do not think that certain media in this country is doing their duty with a sense of responsibility. Media freedom is there for you to do the right thing and to be fair by everybody. Nobody has given freedom for anybody to drive their own agendas. We know very well about those media people who take bribes, write and voice their opinion for some personal gains. That Keith Noyahr who was assaulted was returning from a restaurant with his friends and they were drunk. We do not know that somebody in the restaurant had got annoyed with them, followed him and assaulted.

Related events
29 April 2005
12 August 2005
24 January 2006
2 July 2006
9 January 2007

External links
An army is not its commander’s private fiefdom, The Nation, 11 May 2008; Sri Lanka’s defence ministry lashes out at war reporting, AFP, 5 June 2008

Sources
TamilNet blocked in Sri Lanka, BBC Sinhala, 20 June 2007;

Quotations

“The ban on Tamilnet is the first instance of what the FMM believes may soon be a slippery slope of web & Internet censorship in Sri Lanka. … This is a significant turn in the erosion of media freedom in Sri Lanka and clearly demonstrates the extent to which media is censored and the free flow of information curtailed, without any accountability, transparency or judicial oversight.” Free Media Movement statement.

Opinion
“Under Sivaram’s guidance, and in accordance with his theories, however, TamilNet.com was quickly transformed into a working news agency, with its own independent reporters and editors, its own physical plant, and its own editorial style: a tone, basically, as dry and authoritarian as that of Reuters or the Associated Press, and with an even more passionate emphasis on the need for all reporting to be backed by tape-recordings, double sourcing, and documents in hand. The real key to TamilNet.com’s success here, though, was not only that it collected and edited its own news in a professional manner, but that it collected this news from indigenous reporters living in the most rural parts of Tamil Sri Lanka, rather than from (as was the case with the other news services) reporters from the twin ‘capitals’ of the crisis, Colombo and Jaffna.
“Moreover, TamilNet.com did all its work incredibly cheaply: for only US$2000 a month. For all these reasons, and this is the second most remarkable thing about it, TamilNet.com soon became a kind of world template, for it was one of the first (if not actually the first) strictly web-based, indigenously created, news agencies in the world; and as such its design has since been widely copied.
“Domestically, all the independent Sri Lankan dailies regularly run TamilNet.com reports in their papers – even if only, sometimes, to try and dispute them in their editorial pages. Internationally, the Associated Press, Reuters, and the BBC, who between them control most of the flow of news about Sri Lanka to the rest of the world, often cite or must otherwise reflect TamilNet.com reports,” Mark Whittaker, The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka, Learning Politics from Sivaram, 2007

Related events
29 April 2005

Related events
May 2007
2 May 2007

Related events
15 June 2007
2 July 2006

Source
Monthly Bulletin, International Federation of Journalists, 7 July 2006.

Related events
29 April 2005
12 August 2005
24 January 2006
9 January 2007
23 May 2008

Related events
29 April 2005
12 August 2005
2 July 2006
9 January 2007
23 May 2008

Related events
29 April 2005
24 January 2006
2 July 2006
9 January 2007
23 May 2008

Sivaram’s body was found with severe head injuries in Himbulala, a suburb between Jayawardhenapura hospital and the Parliament building. Sivaram was abducted the evening before in front of the Bambalapitiya Police Station.

Sources
Murdered editor, champion of Tamil causes, BBC, 29 April 2005; Editor of Tamilnet murdered in Colombo, Reporters without Borders, 29 April 2005; The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka, Mark Whittaker, 2007.

Quotations

“The premeditated murder of one of the most renowned Tamil journalists is a huge loss for Sri Lanka’s press. Through his website that was visited by tens of thousands of people daily, he provided essential news on the situation in the country. Whatever one may think of his relations with the Tamil Tigers movement, Sivaram, was a brilliant journalist,” Reporters Without Borders.

“Plenty of people of various political sorts did detest both TamilNet.com and more particularly its editor. In the month of January 2004 alone, for example, Sivaram (as “Taraki”) was denounced in the Sri Lankan government controlled press as an LTTE agent, and by the LTTE’s chief theoretician, Anton Balasingham as, at once, a CIA and an Indian secret agent!” The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka, Mark Whittaker, 2007.

Related events
18 February 1990
12 August 2005
24 January 2006
2 July 2006
9 January 2007
23 May 2008

At the time of his abduction, de Zoysa was the head of the Colombo office of the International Press Service. On 18 February 1990, an armed group broke into his mother’s house, and forcibly removed de Zoysa. The next day, de Zoysa’s body was found in the sea at Moratuwa, some 12 miles south of Colombo. He had been shot in the head and the throat, and his jaw had been broken. His body was identified by his journalist friend Taraki Sivaram, who was assassinated in 2006.

In 2005, two police officers were indicted for de Zoysa’s murder, but all were acquitted on 9 November 2005 by the Colombo High Court, ruling that the evidence presented by the prosecution was “contradictory and not credible”.

Richard de Zoysa was posthumously awarded the International Press Service Award in 1990. This award was established in 1985 to honour outstanding accomplishments in international journalism, promoting democracy and human rights.

Sources
‘Assassinated Journalists’, Free Media Sri Lanka; Insurrectionary Violence in Sri Lanka: The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Insurgencies of 1971 and 1987-1989, Tisaranee Gunasekara, Ethnic Studies Report, ICES, Vol. XVII, No. 1, January 1999;

Quotations

“In A Lost Generation, Prins Gunasekara has a very interesting story to tell—that when he met de Zoysa’s mother, Dr Manorani Saravanamuttu, she did not believe that Premadasa had anything to do with her son’s murder. On the contrary she had believed that it “was the handywork of some jealous persons in the Premadasa administration, like Ranjan Wijeratne, acting independently of President Premadasa. It may even be some old school feud carried too far. At least that is what Manorani Saravanamuttu told me… I told her it was alright telling me about her disbelief in Premadasa’s involvement but she should not voice such naïve statements elsewhere, as her own credibility would be doubted,” Insurrectionary Violence in Sri Lanka: The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Insurgencies of 1971 and 1987-1989, Tisaranee Gunasekara.

“Had he lived, Richard de Zoysa would have been fifty on March 13th this year. He died eighteen years ago, almost the last victim of a period of abductions and killings about which there were hardly any protests at the time, except from a relatively small group of political activists opposed to the government. … The government of the time was after all the chosen instrument of the elite, that still makes decisions, that still constitutes the lens through which much of the West looks at us, and they had had no great problem with President Premadasa’s suppression of the JVP. … But Richard was himself a member of that elite, the scion of two long established families, one Sinhala, the other Tamil. Even though there were crude attempts to justify the killing – leaks about him belonging to the JVP, readings in Parliament from his diary in an attempt to suggest that his sexual proclivities had something to do with the death – in the end it was crystal clear that the government had gone too far. Certainly, it was almost immediately after his death that, his mother would say, Ranjan Wijeratne called the death squads together and told them, at a party at the BMICH she claimed, that their impunity was now over, they would have immunity for anything they had thus far done, but for the future they were on their own. My own view, which I have expressed elsewhere, and most recently in ‘The Limits of Love’, albeit fictionally, is that President Premadasa took advantage of the murder to call a halt to the killings that he had begun to feel were unnecessary now. In that sense, Richard’s murder was not in vain,” Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha, Daily Mirror, 13 March 2008.

Related events
13 November 1989
21 September 1989
August 1987

This event was the subject of a feature: Assassination of an activist.