It is very good if justice will done to the arbitrary detained journalist Tissanayagam. Not only Tissa but a hard core criminal or a black tiger or the prsident, the justice will be the same and nobody will above or below the law. Everbody has a right to credit and discredit a government and we call it as the right to freedom of expression and it is enshrined in our supreme law the 1978 constituition as a Fundemental Right.
BBC has reported the judiciary in Sri Lanka has ordered the police to produce a detained journalist before the courts on 25 August to indict him. Colombo High Court made the order after considering charges produced to the court by Attorney General (AG) against journalist JS Tissainayagam.
The AG has accused the journalist with conspiracy to discredit the government and trying to provoke racism by publishing a magazine 01 June 2006 and 01 January 2007. The accusations are filed under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), Emergency Regulations and Sri Lanka Penal Code.
15 people, majority of them police officers, were called by the authorities as witnesses for the case.
It is the first time the authorities have published charges against Mr. Tissanayagam, who was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) on 06 March.
Sri Lanka government earlier told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the Sunday Times columnist and the editor of Outreach Lanka website was already charged.
In a letter to HRW on 12 August, head of Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat and Secretary to the Ministry of Human Rights, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, said the journalist was charged on suspicions of having links with the LTTE.
“After investigation, which took time given the delicate nature of the case, he has now been charged,” Prof. Wijesinha’s letter stated.
International human rights watchdogs, including HRW and Amnesty International, and Sri Lankan media watchdogs continuously called for the authorities to charge or release him.
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