Tissa faces daily threats, fears loss of eyesight

 (Sunday Times 16th Nov)
When the case of senior journalist J. S. Tissainayagam who has been detained for more than eight months was taken up last Friday in the Colombo High Court, the Judicial Medical Officer summoned to give evidence in the case was not present.

Summons was re-issued on the JMO to be present when the case is next taken up on Tuesday.
Earlier in the week the testimony of Mr. Tissainayagam was concluded. Mr. Tissainayagam testified that he had a serious eye condition. He said that he had degenerative myopia from the age of seven and a serious accident when he was 18 led him to have detached retina in both eyes.

 
He said after the operation he had only about 50% vision in both eyes and that doctors had advised him to be very careful that any sudden movement or fall or blow to the head could make the condition recur and he could lose his eyesight. Mr. Tissainayagam said had informed the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) officers about his eye condition very early on in his detention.

He said, however, TID officers had threatened him saying he would be beaten up like the other detainees and therefore he was very afraid that he would go blind if the TID officers did beat him. He said he was threatened on a daily basis.

In cross-examination, State Counsel produced several documents and statements that Mr. Tissainayagam was said to have signed on March 7, the day he was detained by the TID. Mr. Tissainayagam denied that it was his signature on the documents clearly stating that he signed in the English language and therefore the signature on the documents could not be his.

State Counsel also questioned him as to whether he had visited the Wanni with the permission of the Government. Mr. Tissainayagam answered in the affirmative that he had visited the Wanni as a journalist. The State also questioned him on articles he had written in November 2007 after LTTE political head S. P. Thamilselvan’s death and asked him to read out portions of the article. Mr. Tissainayagam did read out his article and he said he stood by it and added as a journalist he had expressed his views.

Mr. Tissainayagam also said that on May 9 after he had seen his colleague Jasikaran being tortured, he had been told the same would happen to him. That was why he wrote down what was dictated to him by a TID officer, he said.

The prosecution’s position was that Mr. Tissainayagam was lying on this point. However when the defence attempted to mark the JMO’s report detailing Jasikaran’s torture on May 9 the prosecution objected and the objection was sustained. Therefore the defence asked for the JMO who had given the report to be called as a witness. The prosecution then said that it too would be calling other JMOs who had seen Jasikaran.

The trial will resume on Tuesday. Counsel Anil Silva with M.A. Sumanthiran, Nalin Ladduwahetty and Ms. Charmaine Gunaratne appeared for journalist Tissainayagam. State Counsel Sudarshana de Silva with Miss Samalka Samarasinghe appeared for the TID.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) had launched a campaign in September to end Mr. Tissainayagam’s detention as it said the case was a trial of the freedom of expression. As a part of that campaign they had produced a video depicting Mr. Tissainayagam going to the Magistrate’s Court and the show of solidarity witnessed outside the Magistrate’s Courts. However two weeks ago the video clip on UTube had been blocked by unknown persons.

Paper tax to silence the media, JVP says

 

By Padmini Matarage

(lakbima english, 16th Nov)

The JVP believes the imposition of a paper tax is proof that the government is indirectly attempting to silence the media.
Anura Kumara Dissanayaka points out that the imposition of a 5% Cess on imported paper will affect the prices of paper needed to print newspapers, and prices of exercise books and stationery also. He says that the new tax will force newspaper owners to increase the prices of their newspapers. ‘The increased price may reduce the demand for newspapers and as such, this could be taken as an indirect attempt to silence the media,” he says.
Dissanayaka charges that the government has not done anything to uplift domestic production, but claims that the taxes are being imposed to uplift the local economy.
“The paper factories at Embilipitiya and Valaichchenai had been closed down and that the government did not have a proper plan to meet even 50% of the country’s paper demand,” he says.

Mervyn indicted on nine counts

(Sunday Leader 16th Nov)

Labour Minister Mervyn Silva and three others were indicted on Friday by the Attorney General in the High Court of Colombo on nine counts of unlawful assembly, mischief, robbery and assault involving Sirasa journalists at Peliyagoda on August 4.

The assault and removal of the camera equipment took place when the journalists Waruna Sampath and Saliya Ranawaka went to cover a public event at the invitation of the organisers of the event.

Silva, Dulan Hettiarachchi, Prasanna Ranaweera and Nihal Chandrawansa alias Manchi Nihal were indicted on charges of assault, unlawful assembly, mischief and robbery. They have been indicted under nine counts.

Charge one in the indictment relates to the removal of videotapes from the two journalists.

Charge number two in the indictment states that a camcorder worth Rs 1,239,500 was removed from the Sirasa video journalist Waruna Sampath, and another worth 102,500 from Saliya Ranawaka, according to charge number three. They have also been charged on count four with assaulting Sampath and causing him injuries intentionally. The four have been indicted with damaging the cameras in charges five and nine.