Journalist’s wife threatened

 

By Jayashika Padmasiri
After the arrest of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, it is now learnt that his wife has received several threats. The sources close to the family suspected that the threats emanated from government agencies.

“A fundamental rights (FR) case has been filed at the Supreme Court against the arrests of Tissainayagam and three other journalists. Three other journalists, who were arrested with him were released, but Tissainayagam is yet to be released. We believe this is intimidation. They have even tried to intimidate the wife of Tissainayagam by making several phone calls and threatening her,” sources revealed.

Meanwhile, The Free Media Movement (FMM) also said that it is planning to launch a protest campaign demanding the release of columnist Tissainayagam.

FMM Convenor Sunanda Deshapriya told The Nation that the government has been unable to come up with a proper cause for the arrest of Tissainayagam.

Deshapriya revealed that the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) along with the five media organisations in Sri Lanka are planning to launch a protest campaign against the government regarding the unnecessary harassment of media personnel by the authorities, under the theme “stop war on journalists.”