Tamil journalist J.S. Tissanayagam, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail on charges of conspiracy and violating emergency regulations, was granted a presidential pardon Monday.
“It is fitting that the announcement came on World Press Freedom Day, which celebrates the vital role a free media plays in every democracy,” a statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Colombo said.
Rights groups and Western nations had criticized Sri Lanka for using emergency laws to control the media after Tissanayagam was arrested for criticizing the government’s military offensive during the start of the final phase of a 25-year war.
The powerful regulations had given the government wide powers to arrest and detain people without any charges as the country fought the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a war that killed over 100,000 people.
(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez)
‘Thw Leader’ reported on 16th May 2010 as Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole said; “The journalist Tissanayagam has been pardoned. That too is positive (although the man has written some horrid, hate-filled, untruthful things about me – The Sunday Leader, 12 March 2000).
Now, who had said Tissanayagam had written horrid things? It was Hoole another separatist. So, why would Tissanayagam wanted to criticize separatist Hoole? I think Tissanayagam had his own agenda in collusion with LTTE. So when Hoole hadn’t fall in line with LTTE, Tissanayagam wrote horrid things about him.
Tissanayagam is no saint.