Jailed Sri Lankan journalist gets international support

Ironically , ever since Sri Lankan journalist  J S Tissanayagam was given a 20 -year rigorous imprisonment  verdict  by the Colombo High Court , international press freedom groups in the world haven't  stopped announcing awards for him . While the Lankan court convicted the columnist of the Sunday Times under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the media community worldwide have condemned the jail term and described Tissanayagam as"a journalist who reported fearlessly and truthfully." 

 

While the Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) has dedicated its 2009 Press Freedom Award,  Reporters Without Borders (RWB) announced the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism for Tissanayagam . Both simultaneously demanded that the Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa reverse the order.A statement from International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said :" He has been victimised for no more then holding the government to account and giving voice to legitimate if critical opinion. The sentence is a chilling reminder of how dangerous Sri Lanka has become for independent journalists".

 

This week following European Union critique of the 20 -year sentence , the Sri Lankan government was forced to send a full report to the EU on the circumstances that led to the conviction . Striking a defiant note the Information and Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yape said : "Nobody has the right to question the independence and rationale of the judgement by a court in a democratic country."

 

But what did the Sri Lankan government expect after such a verdict? Did they really expect the world and the world media community to buy the argument that Tissanayagam was not doing his job professionally and that he was a funded mouthpiece of the LTTE ? Establishments the world over have come up with this time-worn fig leaf for justifying gagging members of the Fouth Estate. And this one fell as flat as the previous ones drawing condemnation all around.

 

Tissanayagam or Tissa, as he is popularly known to his friends and family was an alumni of Delhi's Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNU) where he did his Masters in International Relations . His column in Sunday Times titled "Telescope" was very popular and he actively critiqued the Sri Lankan government's policy on Sri Lankan Tamils. While this caused embarassment to the ruling establishment it was a website he ran called OutreachSL.com which they held was funded by the LTTE. On March 9^th, 2008, Tissanayagam and two other journalists were arrested in Colombo and detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division(TID) . At that point he had filed an application alleging fundamental rights violation and illegal detention by the TID but he was refused bail again and again. Following 17 months in jail came this stunning conviction of a further 20 - year jail term .

 

 A Sri Lankan journalist who also happens to be Tissa's personal friend told me on condition of anonymity  : " The verdict was a huge blow to Tissa. It confirms what we, his close friends, had long suspected: it was a political trial. We have now begun the next step: working on an appeals process and also trying to make sure of his physical safety in prison. Tissa was the first journalist to be tried under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) enacted in 1979 . Many other journalists have been tortured and have fled the country".

 

While censorship and self censorship have become synonymous in Sri Lanka in the two- and -a- half decade long ethnic conflict, journalists writing independently and critiquing the ruling establishment are directly under fire. In January this year Editor in Chief of the Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickramatunga was reportedly shot dead in the busy hours of the morning as he was heading to work by masked men on motorcycles. According to his wife and family members Lasatha had been receiving death threats on the telephone for his candid critiques of the government. Till date the coroner's report has not been made public leading to suspicions of 'foul play'.

 

"Sri Lanka is evolving as a regressive country when journalists are killed and imprisoned with impunity. When journalists are treated with extreme injustice, it does not take long for demagoguery to bring down the rest of society" remarked Kanak Mani Dixit, Editor of Himal South Asia."South asian journalists must come together to speak up for free media in Sri Lanka" added Dixit who has himself been at the receiving end in the past at the hands of censorship regimes in his own country, Nepal.

 

Nepal has witnessed the gagging of the media in the decade- long turbulent transition politics with journalists being jailed either for speaking against the monarchy or the naxalites . This year a 27 -year old woman journalist working in print and radio, Uma Singh was killed by 15 assailants allegedly representing the Maoists for openly opposing them.

 

Pakistan blanked out channels and blacklisted journalists during their turbulent transition from army rule to a democratically elected government. At the last Commonwealth meeting held in Kampala in Uganda the Pakistan government was urged to lift the gags on the media.

 

 In India too , the state in recent times has arrested several journalists (to quote a few examples : Prashant Rahi from Uttarakhand and Ajay T G from Chattisgarh ) on grounds of allegedly supporting  naxalites . They subsequently released Ajay on lack of evidence but Rahi is still languishing in jail.

 

According to the Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) twenty six journalists have been killed this year for going about their professional duties. Five are from South Asia -  Sri Lanka -2  ,Nepal -1 ,and Pakistan - 2.  In the ten year period between 1999 to 2009 , 459 journalists have been killed worldwide according to CPJ statistics.

 

The number of jailed and subpoenaed journalists found in contempt of court , in most cases for not revealing their sources, has also grown at an alarming rate in recent years . One of the recent high profile cases in the US was that of New York Times reporter Judith Miller who was jailed in 2005. Miller was incarcerated for refusing to reveal a confidential source. The first reported case of a reporter refusing to divulge his source dates back to nearly three centuries back in the year 1735 according to Gordon T Belt, Library manager , First Amendment Centre, who has prepared a fascinating documentation of the historical timeline of such cases.

Tissanayagam will prove to be another test case in media freedom where the state's power is unleashed to gag journalists.