Activists to appeal Tamil journalist's sentence

(September 4, 2009) In Sri Lanka, rights activists, including priests, have criticized the decision by the Colombo high court to sentence a Tamil journalist to 20 years' imprisonment for written articles about the impact of the government's offensive on civilians. J.S. Tissanayagam, a Christian, was arrested on March 7, 2008 but only sentenced on Monday for accepting money from the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to write propaganda and sow dissent between minority Tamils and the Sinhalese ethnic majority. There were scenes of chaos outside the High Court in Colombo during the court hearing, with some 50 civic activists, including Christian priests, waving placards. Father M. Sathivel of St Michael Church in Colombo said the “unexpected verdict comes at a time when our country needs determined journalists who can present all sides of the truth." Father Nandana Saparamadu of Colombo archdiocese said, "It is a threat to democracy as well as freedom of expression." Tissanayagam’s lawyer Anil Silva told UCA News that the verdict was an apparent "warning to all the journalists of this country" that they may "face the same fate." Prelates, rights activists, journalists and priests who campaign for media freedom and human rights say they will press Tissanayagam's lawyers to appeal the verdict. However, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has named Tissanayagam as the first winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism, and US President Barack Obama has also described Tissanayagam as an "emblematic example" of an unjustly persecuted news reporter.