National Peace Councilof Sri Lanka Media Release
PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ACT IS NOT FOR JOURNALISTS...............The National Peace Council believes that at the root of the harsh prison sentence is the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which is a draconian law with a disproportionate impact that is aimed at apprehending terrorists and not journalists who use the pen and not the sword to influence the politics of the society in which they live. Mr Tissainayagam was the first journalist to be formally charged under this law for his writings. A number of eminent witnesses had given evidence at the trial that Mr Tissainayagam was not a person who would incite communal disharmony and had stood for human rights in general, including the rights of Tamil people affected by the war. This was our conviction too. ....... (
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මාධ්ය නිවේදනය / 31 අගෝස්තු 2009
ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයට විලංගු ලයි:තිස්සනායගම්ට විසි වසරක සිර ද~ුවමක්
ජනමාධ්යවේදී ෙජ්.එස්. තිසෙයිනායගම් ත්රස්තවාදය වැළැක්වීමේ පනත යටතේ 2009 අගොස්තු 31 දින විසි වසරක
බරපතල වැඩ සහිත සිර දඩුවමකට ලක් කිරීම ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදය සඳහා මාධ්යවේදියෝ සංවිධානය හෙළා
දකී.
PRESS RELEASE31 August 2009
Tissainayagam sentenced to 20 years:
Democracy in chains in Sri Lanka
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka condemns the sentencing of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam to twenty
years rigorous imprisonment under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on August 31, 2009.
Tissainayagam’s sentence is based on a ‘confession’ that he has refuted and two articles written and published by him in 2006. The judgment also states that the two articles written by Tissainayagam that are the subject of this investigation contain material that causes ‘communal disharmony’, and this too is considered a basis for his sentence. Tissainayagam has never engaged in, or promoted, violence of any kind, and we have always known him to be committed to co-existence and inter-ethnic justice. (
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A SYMBOL OF SUBVERSION OF THE LAW Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, September 5th 2009, - Focus on Rights', The Sunday TimesIt was a week dominated by the unprecedented sentencing of senior journalist JS Tissainayagam to twenty years hard labour under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) No 48 of 1979 (as amended) and prevalent Emergency Regulations for the writing of two articles in a journal some years back. A third charge related to the obtaining of funds to run that journal, thereby constituting the collection of monies for the furtherance of terrorist acts. (
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