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Tissainayagam arrive in the US | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sri Lankan Tamil journalist J. S Tissainayagam released from Sri Lankan prison has arrived in the United States. Announcing his arrival Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, journalist was greeted by his friends and CPJ representative Kamel Labidi at Washington Dulles airport on Saturday (19th June) morning. According to Labidi, Tissainayagam has thanked all who helped him to gain his freedom. However journalist and his wife did not make any public statements. CPJ expects that arrival of J.S. Tissanayagam in the United States is instrumental in influencing the Sri Lankan government to “address its harsh policies towards the media”. J.S. Tissanayagam was arrested in 2008 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for inciting racial disharmony in his magazine. He is the first journalist to jail under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in August 2008. Foreign journalist of the year He was pardon by the president on 3rd of May, the World Press Freedom Day and he lived in seclusion in Sri Lanka since granted bail on January 2010. In September 2009, he was given an award for courageous and ethical journalism by the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders and in March 2010 he was named as the foreign journalist of the year at the British Press Award in London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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India's frustration with Sri Lanka over Tamils