{"id":4569,"date":"2010-05-05T13:25:58","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T13:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/?p=4569"},"modified":"2015-04-23T13:27:12","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T13:27:12","slug":"statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement on pardoned Sri Lankan journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>&#8220;I welcome President Mahinda Rajapaksa&#8217;s pardon of Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Tissainayagam on such an important day as World Press Freedom Day (Monday). <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>&#8220;I hope that this move indicates a change of attitude towards the media in Sri Lanka and signals a new chapter for press freedom, which is such a vital pillar of democracy.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1] In 2008, Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Tissainayagam became the first journalist arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act following the publication of articles in which he criticized the government&#8217;s treatment of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians affected by the war.<\/p>\n<p>In August last year, a court decided his articles broke the law because they were designed to create agitation between the Tamil minority and Sinhala majority and Jayaprakash received a 20-year jail term on charges of &#8220;supporting&#8221; terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>Jeyaprakash appealed the ruling, and was granted bail in January this year pending the outcome of his appeal.<\/p>\n<p>2] Jean Lambert, the Green Party MEP for London, is the Chair of the South Asian delegation in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I welcome President Mahinda Rajapaksa&#8217;s pardon of Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Tissainayagam on such an important day as World Press Freedom Day (Monday). &#8220;I hope that this move indicates a change of attitude towards the media in Sri Lanka and signals a new chapter for press freedom, which is such a vital pillar of democracy.&#8221; Background: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[340],"tags":[243],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Statement on pardoned Sri Lankan journalist  - Jean Lambert MEP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;I welcome President Mahinda Rajapaksa&#8217;s pardon of Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Tissainayagam on such an important day as World Press Freedom Day (Monday). &#8220;I hope that this move indicates a change of attitude towards the media in Sri Lanka and signals a new chapter for press freedom, which is such a vital pillar of democracy.&#8221; Background: [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jean Lambert MEP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-05T13:25:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-23T13:27:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jean Lambert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Jean Lambert MEP\",\"description\":\"Green Member of the European Parliament for London\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/\",\"name\":\"Statement on pardoned Sri Lankan journalist - Jean Lambert MEP\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-05T13:25:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-23T13:27:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c836e03ec80e0c9008dd7c292519e72f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Statement on pardoned Sri Lankan journalist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c836e03ec80e0c9008dd7c292519e72f\",\"name\":\"Jean Lambert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06e9b2d69cc1d274eb41b3b39d5b8cb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06e9b2d69cc1d274eb41b3b39d5b8cb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jean Lambert\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/author\/jean-lambert\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Statement on pardoned Sri Lankan journalist  - Jean Lambert MEP","og_description":"&#8220;I welcome President Mahinda Rajapaksa&#8217;s pardon of Tamil journalist Jayaprakash Tissainayagam on such an important day as World Press Freedom Day (Monday). &#8220;I hope that this move indicates a change of attitude towards the media in Sri Lanka and signals a new chapter for press freedom, which is such a vital pillar of democracy.&#8221; Background: [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/","og_site_name":"Jean Lambert MEP","article_published_time":"2010-05-05T13:25:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-23T13:27:12+00:00","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jean Lambert","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/","name":"Jean Lambert MEP","description":"Green Member of the European Parliament for London","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/","name":"Statement on pardoned Sri Lankan journalist - Jean Lambert MEP","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-05-05T13:25:58+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-23T13:27:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c836e03ec80e0c9008dd7c292519e72f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/2010\/05\/05\/statement-on-pardoned-sri-lankan-journalist\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Statement on pardoned Sri Lankan journalist"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/c836e03ec80e0c9008dd7c292519e72f","name":"Jean Lambert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06e9b2d69cc1d274eb41b3b39d5b8cb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/06e9b2d69cc1d274eb41b3b39d5b8cb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jean Lambert"},"url":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/author\/jean-lambert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanlambertmep.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}