Has journalist J.S. Tissanaiyagam really received a Presidential pardon?
The External Affairs Minister, Prof. G.L. Peiris, who has absolutely nothing to do with the judiciary, claimed at his first press briefing yesterday – 3 May – that President has DECIDED to pardon journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, who was ruled guilty by the HC of Colombo and sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment.
The Minister for External Affairs, who was a Professor of Law, said the President has powers to do so and that it comes on a very important day for the media, the Press Freedom Day.
The Sri Lankan mainstream media, that plays into politicians without much ado, carried this news as if Tissainayagam was “set free”. Most reports sort of gave more weight to this statement than even an actual “pardon”. The electronic media was all out with this news from last afternoon. Wow! Tissainayagam pardoned! they sounded.
This morning, Dinamina, Divayina and Lakbima Sinhala dailies and Daily Mirror, The Island English dailies, (wouldn’t know of Tamil news papers) made major news stories, some making headline news, out of this very ambiguous statement, without any inquiries made from either Tissainayagam or his lawyers.
Has Tissainayagam been actually given a pardon? If so, why is the Presidential Secretariat not making any reference to it ? Why is Tissanayagam or his lawyers not commenting on it ? Till now (3pm on 4 May) there is no semblance of proof that Tissainayagam has been pardoned by the President.
It’s only a Professor who has no ministerial responsibility to announce such a pardon and the media that has NO responsibility on what it publishes that has pardoned Tissanayagam.
A witty news bug thus said, “Prof GL beat Dr. Mervyn to it” on Press Freedom Day.
That’s Sri Lanka, any way.
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I hope that this is not to appease a source that Sri Lanka needs to satisfy to meet certain short-comings.
Knowing the way this government conducts itself I will not put anything past them. Shane Warne, the Australian cricketer who at one time was the master of his trade is now redundant, the likes of the Sri Lankan government has just clean white-washed the likes of him.
As I had stated on another web-site, Mr. Tissanayagem’s restrictions have all got to be lifted, the case withdrawn and compensation for the humiliation and sufferings that he and his family have had to endure has got to be paid along with the right to travel anywhere, live in a place of his choice.
If I was in his boots, I will get my family together and get the hell out of this country as there will a few countries that will accept the likes of him. ONCE BITTEN MANY TIMES SHY.
Sri Lanka’s loss, somebody else’s gain, that’s the norm. a j.
Last year Frontlline Club (a war correspondent’s club set up from Graham Greene’s trust and run by his grand nephew John Smith) had an event to mark Lasantha’s muder and discuss the dangers facing journalists in Sri Lanka.
The panel of speakers and the audience mainly war correspondents expressed deep concern that as long as Tissa was in jail his life would be relatively safe. But only when he is released the danger starts.
Tissa has enough international support get him out of the country immediately for the time being. But as CPJ said how much pardon has he got. Has his impounded passport been returned to him? Pardoning him also means he is exonerated from his accusations and therefore he needs compensation for the agony caused both mentally and physically by being incarcerated for over two years.
These are questions which need addressing by the govenrment. The violence against media is a serious issue which need urgent redress given the fact Sri Lanka is fourth on the list of the most dangerous places for journalists to be behind Iraq and Pakistan.
Also, how about the other journalists who ‘disappeared’ or still being held in prisons?
As the HC has found Mr. Tissanayagam guilty. if in reality a pardon is given by the President and if Mr T accepts the Pardon – full or partial – then he also accepts that he is guilty as charged. The point that need to be made by CPJ or any others for Freedom of the Press, is that Mr T was not guilty. I don’t think the President has the constitutional authority to set aside a Court decision.
Mr.T has appealed the decision of the HC and it is important for CPJ and other journalist orgs to support his appeal until the appeal process is completed and the SC makes a determination. If the SC found Mr. T guilty then Presidential Pardon will mean something.
May be the President is testing the reaction of Mt T and the IC, especially the UN and the EU, by getting GLP to announce hoping that Mr. T declines. Then GLP and the President will have a point to make to the EU on GSP.
@Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam
It is plain irresponsible to say that if Tissanayagam accepts the pardon, he also accepts guilt. Come on — hasn’t the guy suffered enough already under a draconian piece of legislation and an equally brutal implementation machinery? We are coming out of all that now. Slowly, but surely. The suggestion of Presidential pardon should be taken in the context of a confident government and society (Sinhala and Tamil) which has no more to fear, despite the long list of evils you can easily make (corruption, concentration of power in the family etc). I welcome this gesture, though it is yet to be confirmed, and think of it as a first step towards lifting the emergency and repealing the PTA. I believe the government will be confident enough to do these things faster if some of these “transnational eelam government” jokers would keep quiet for a bit. Hasn’t irresponsible shouting of heroics from far away cost the Tamils of Sri Lanka so much suffereing already? When will you lot ever learn?
anthony jones.. hopefully ur another gift/gain to another country as well. if not please consider your self wrapping up and surprising a host country that values you. for us the like of you are burdons. thanks for your consideration
actually for everyone who wants to leave this country we should open the doors wide open. encourage them! assist them, even financially! why hold people back? then we will be left we people who really wants to get stuck knee deep in the mud and fight for the future and people.
shoo, shoo… mr. president, please hand over tissa’s passport to him so he can be escaped.
and if tissa is a man with any principle then if he accepts the pardon, it is an admission of guilt. since the HC has ruled him guilty im not sure what he has to worry about. he is a convicted man. pearl, please help the man, it would be an absolute delight for us if we can extradite our terror convicts overseas. like heshan once pointed out, we can’t have super cool, state of the art gitmos.
this is a win-win-win situation..
sri lanka – win by saving money we have to spend keeping terror convicts in prison at tax payer’s expense and all the crap we have to hear when we exercise our right to convict terrorists because the terrorist was a journo during the day.
tissa – win because i’m sure he likes to be a free man and not worry about rouge justice chasing him once he’s out of jail.
host country – win because of the first rate asset they’re getting!
halleluja!
Tissanayagam was convicted on his own “confession” which he retracted in court by saying that he was ‘induced’ to make same by the police who promised to have him released, most probably by not objecting to bail, if he made it. He also stated that he was assaulted in custody.
The judge did not beleive him and had obviously considered the “confession” as genuine.
This raises a fundamental question about how a ‘confession’ should be obtained from an accused. My understanding is that any confession must be made, or confirmed, to a judicial officer in his chambers, in privacy, WITHOUT the presnce of police or anyone else ( except a person to record ).
Will anyone care to comment?
I agree with you Justitia
The fact that Tissanayagam had been convicted, under dubious circumstances (confessions etc) of offences under misguided anti-terrorism legislation is a sad indictment of the state of affairs in Sri Lanka. The classic case of a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
The Sri Lankan judicial system is overwhelmed by the huge number of manifestly unjust prosecutions that are intended solely as a means of cowing anyone who dares oppose the government. Any impartial judge is rendered impotent in the face of government delaying tactics that are designed to prolong unjust imprisonments under draconian laws.
Any journalist will no doubt have the honour of entering the government blacklist of “enemies of the state, especially the ones who dare question the regime.
What is it about repressive regimes that make them so sensitive to contsructive criticism?
Do the Rajapakse Brothers think that they can continue with this repression and just listen to their lackeys who would not dare draw attention to the Emperor’s new clothes (or glaring lack of them, in this case ) ?
Observer obviously has not practised journalism. Otherwise he would be not be writing such drivel and taking Tissa’s case as a fraud.
To have 36 journalists murdered since Richard de Soysa was dragged out of his house in 1990 by armed gunmen and his body dumped on the beach for sending footage of nearly 70,000 JVP youth killed by the UNP in a three year reign of terror to IPS, the successive governments have learnt to terrorise independent journalists and suppress their freedom.
Admittedly some journalists who are not under threat for their reporting or writings do take the opportunity given to genuine persecuted journalists by other countries and seek asylum under false pretences.
Were it not for honest and independent journalists many of the governments’ corruption, human rights violations, nepotism would not have been exposed.
These journalists have more patriotism than sycophants and chauvinists.
Dear Nagalingam and Observer,
“and if tissa is a man with any principle then if he accepts the pardon, it is an admission of guilt.”
Not really. Even if Tissa rejects the pardon he’ll be released. You don’t really get the option of accepting or rejecting the pardon.
you’re right pearl. i’m not a journalist and i don’t know much at all about journalism. but i don’t hold any sympathy for journos who abuse their “tag” for unethical, illegal conduct. during the war it would have been a concern him being free and being able to coordinate terror activities. now that the war is over it is not so much of a concern far as i am concerned and it’s probably the same reason gov has decided to pardon him and at the same time get some heat off. but i would feel safer if he leaves the country in any case. since some in the international community think he’s not guilty they should adopt him. didn’t obama raise concern when he was sentenced? here’s ur chance.. US should grant him a visa without thinking twice.
i mean the debate over there right now is whether they should grant miranda rights to one of their own citizens who is accused of terrorism (human rights 101 FAIL!). lol.. clearly they’re in a moral position to judge others who deal with their terrorists right.. go nuts! have tissa.. its a very little thing you can do to give us peace of mind.
every time someone else (fashionable outsiders who wants to butt in from time to time.. u know like miliband and co… whom last time i checked can’t even appease their own country men.. lol) wants to judge our sovereign decisions, we should tell them.. really??? do you wanna have say in this matter? which btw is non of your freaking business? oh my! i see… you’re very passionate about this aren’t you? why the hell don’t you take them then.. HERE! solved!
wijyapala,
“Some believe accepting such a pardon implicitly constitutes an admission of guilt, so in some cases the offer is refused (cases of wrongful conviction are nowadays more often dealt with by appeal than by pardon).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon
i never said he won’t be released or not.. all i said was if he accepts the pardon, my take is that it is an admission of guilt.
Observer,
you still don’t get it, isn’t it? Have you ever heard of rehabilitation / dignity? What you think if the President just pardon SF by let him go free? Given there are no proofs of his guilt then they should pronounce it, that they have mistaken in the first place by charging him.The dignity is much more valuable than the freedom bought with favor.
It is though in Sri Lanka where the mass murder Karuna being given a ministry and Tissa sentenced to 20 yrs rigorous imprisonment! And if you think Tissa is a culprit why he is sentenced and the Karuna was rewarded? Does it make any sense to you?
The President even contemplating giving the media minstry from Mervin, a confirmed oppressor of media freedom, and luckily or unluckily snatching in time to transfer this portfolio to an equally dubious character such as Keheliya Rambukwella, a personal friend of GL [edited out] is tantamount to succumbing to his democratic principles.
Politicians are known to sell their souls for prestige and prominence. No other leader in SL politics had stooped this low. Gone are the days when we had politicians who forfeited their personal wealth to champion causes near and dear to their heart. It is a sad day in history when we have politicians who would squander public wealth to entrench themselves in power and to hell with masses and their priorities who in their blind obescience voted these jokers into power.
Zorro, I get it enough to get by… if you know what that means…
It’s called strategic decisions. Politics, war essentially has no principles. Funny you should mention SF, he was a prime example of what I just said. Don’t be so naive. Heshan once justified dropping not ONE! but TWO! nukes on Japan was justified by the lives saved – mind you the Allied lives saved. Using similar sort of logic, one can argue, Karuna’s defection helped save vast amounts of lives, especially among Eastern Tamil youth and SLA soldiers. Is that not something worthy of praise? Sure he killed many Sinhala soldiers, Tamil youth, other innocent people. Sure that makes your blood boil but this is about the game in the long run. You cannot get your dead back but you can save the ones that are alive. People who hold deep grudges can never win. If we stuck to principles and eliminated everyone in the path who deserved it, we would have failed miserably. But we did get the ones that mattered a lot.
Difference? Karuna was helping the goal, Tissa wasn’t and neither is SF now!
Tissa still not officially pardoned – Tissa’s lawyer states, from http://www.lakbimanews.lk/archvi/lakbimanews_10_05_09/special/spe4.htm
Minister for External Affairs, G.L. Peiris announced that J. S. Tissainayagam was pardoned on May 3. As his lawyer, what is your opinion about the pardon?
Minister of External Affairs Prof. G. L Peiris announced that J. S. Tissainayagam will be pardoned by the president on May 3, on World Press Freedom Day. I don’t think that the government will go back on its word but so far the pardon has not been granted officially and we have not been consulted yet. So I will not and I cannot comment much on this development until he is officially pardoned.
He is on bail right now and we had to remove the appeal so that he can be pardoned. We will start discussing the terms of this pardon with the Attorney General’s Department in the coming days.
If Tissa right along rejected the false charges against him where does this “pardon” come in. A wooden-hearted “system” imprisoned an innocent man – young husband of a young wife and children regardless of their tearful pleadings – son of aged parents whose health suffered as a result of the incarceraton of this responsible journalist. Tissa himself needed regular treatment for his eyes. His illegal imprisonment exposed him going blind. All these were brought to the notice of the President and the government by a whole range of Sri Lankans from all communities, the local and world media, several governments including President Obama. But poor Tissanayagam was condemned to suffer through the obstinacy of an insensititive State. His Senior Counsel put up a great defence, inter alia, stating the charges on which he was taken and finally on which plaint was filed were totally different. And now this drama. Where is our sense of justice? If it still is around Tissanayagam should be compensated by the State adequately for all the sufferings he went through; for the violation of his Constitutional Rights. Is our system sufficiently decent and responsive to rise to the occasion?
ISS