Sri Lankan Journalist Given 20 Years In Prison On Charges Of Violating Anti-Terror Law

AP:

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- A Sri Lankan reporter singled out by President Barack Obama as an example of persecuted journalists around the globe was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison on charges of violating the country's harsh anti-terror law.

J.S. Tissainayagam's articles in the now-defunct Northeastern Monthly magazine in 2006 and 2007 criticized the conduct of the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels and accused authorities of withholding food and other essential items from Tamil-majority areas as a tool of war.

Tissainayagam's conviction, 17 months after the ethnic Tamil reporter was arrested, was the first time a journalist was found guilty of violating the country's Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Rights groups have accused the government of waging a broad crackdown on media freedom that has continued since it routed the rebels and ended the nation's quarter-century civil war in May.

Tissainayagam, who has been labeled a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was arrested in March 2008 and indicted five months later under the anti-terror law.

During his World Press Freedom Day address in May, Obama highlighted Tissainayagam's case as an example of journalists being jailed or harassed for doing their jobs.

On Monday, High Court Judge Deepali Wijesundara said Tissainayagam's articles violated the law because they were aimed at creating communal disharmony. She also found him guilty of raising money for a publication whose articles violated the anti-terror law and sentenced him to 20 years.
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"The constitution guarantees media freedom, but no one has a right to deliberately publish false reports that would lead to communal violence," prosecutor Sudarshana de Silva said in his court filing.

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Defense lawyer Anil Silva said Tissainayagam had always fought for human rights.

"He was never a racist and he at no time tried to arouse hatred," he said in his defense filing. "Now he has been punished for what he wrote as a journalist. This will be a lesson to other journalists too."

Silva said his client would appeal.

"There is no press freedom in this country today, even after the war is over," said Sirithunga Jayasuriya, a local media rights activist. Tissainayagam's conviction would set a bad precedent for media across the country, he said.

International media rights groups say the government has used emergency laws to silence public criticism of its conduct and has failed to investigate violent attacks -- and killings -- of journalists.

The government has denied the allegations.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 11 Sri Lankan reporters were forced to flee the country in the past year, and Amnesty International said at least 14 Sri Lankan journalists and media workers had been killed since the beginning of 2006.

In June, the government said it would re-establish a powerful press council with the authority to jail journalists it finds guilty of defamation or inaccurate reporting.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[Mel Tharanga]

This kind of ignorant reaction is shocking. He has not been sentanced for 'writing an article''. He has been sentanced for taking money from a terririst organisation the LTTE, and doing their propaganda for them.
20 years may be too harsh -- but he has an appeal.
this kind of overreaction is absurd. The terrorists killed little kids by cutting them up. This man is supposed to have taken money form them and done their propaganda. that he did their propaganda is obvious, the articles are still there on websites. the prosecutors say he took money from terrorists.
But these are not Kangaroo courts. There is an appeal. Obama looks very foolish when he bombs Pakistan and kills children -- yes dozens of children -- and next day gets santiomonious about a man getting due process for aiding terririts. This has nothing to do wth theravada buddhsim, it has everythgn to do with protecting peope form terririts.

[Shanthy]

'Emblematic Journalist' does not apply to Sri Lanka with the number of journalists killied or thretned with deaths.

Sri Lankan war without witness was with stringent media blackout.
There were huge sums paid to media from the subcontinent and consulting firms in the western world.

It becomes an upset that the Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka leaked out the gruesome video on tamil executions.

Journalists are in for more trouble in dictatorial Sri Lanka.

[Papadum]

This is the government to which the IMF recently lent billions of dollars...The Sri Lankan government is holding more than 200,000 Tamil civilians in internment camps after they escaped the civil war. This is after the government killed an estimated 20,000 civilians in indiscriminate shelling in the last few months. They are short of food, water, and sanitary conditions. Foreign journalists and international NGO's are not allowed access to the camps which should indicate to you what is going on there.

Finally, the West is seeing the chauvinism that the Tamils have had to deal with for the last 50 years. The current Sri Lankan government should be spoken about in the same terms of those in Iran, North Korea, and Zimbabwe because the country is well on its way in its mis-government, its disrespect for the freedom of the press and for its treatment of minorities.

For an amazing read, read a letter a Sri Lankan journalist wrote to be released after his death when he foresaw his assasination by the Sri Lankan government:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/stevecoll/2009/01/letter-from-the.html

I

[yankees]

He got an extra 10 years because of Obama.

[Dhammi]

Give me strength!

[qdog112]

ANTI-TERROR ACT- a clear spawn of the Bush administration.

[ZenJu]

Sri Lanka is like THE heartland of Theravada Buddhism. Time for the teachings of the Buddha to inform the policies and laws of this government, isn't it? The world is watching. How is 20 years for writing an article an example of the Dharma in action?

[dissanayake]

During the invasion of Iraq, the US targeted the Press office of Al Jazeera, killing several journalists, s our soldiers directed fire at Hotels occupied by journalists. The same targetting of Jazeera in Afghanistan. This country suffered under 26 years of terror, lost 70,000 civilians. I dont remember Sanator Obama speaking up about our propensity to 'accidentally' bomb journo's that may disagree with our policies. A policy of hypocracy ' dont do as we do, do as we say'

[jack7576]

20 years for writing an article

WTH

[Trittydi]

This is so sad. Our thoughts and concern are with this brave man.
*

[jack7576]

yes