The Constitution guarantees certain rights to journalists to express their opinions on current issues and they should not be penalized for doing so, senior criminal lawyer and human rights activist Manori Muttetuwegama said while giving evidence on Friday in the case against journalist J.S.Tissainayagam.
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| Tissainayagam |
Mrs. Muttetuwegama said her understanding was that writers express their opinion to the public but it was not done with the intention of creating any conflict or communal or racial disharmony in society. She also held that the article in the “North East Monthly” of which Mr. Tissainayagam was the Editor was not damaging to the image of members of the security forces.
Mrs. Muttetuwegama was giving evidence before High Court Judge Depali Wijesundara in the Tissainayagam case. The truthfulness of a story can be decided only by a Commission appointed for this purpose and not by an individual opinion, she added.
Having read out the parts of the articles of magazine ‘North East Monthly’, which were attached to the indictment, Mrs. Muttetuwegama said her opinion was that the writer was expressing his opinion to the public and only highlighted the hardships and the constraints that the residents of Vakarai were undergoing at the time.
She added that journalist Tissainayagam does not hold a grudge against any ethnic group nor wants to create problems among them. Mrs.Muttetuwegama said that Sinhalese are not against the Tamils or any other community.
It is some individuals who go against the other communities. Counsel Anil Silva led the evidence of Mrs. Muttetuwegama. Senior State Counsel Sudarshana de Silva prosecuted.
Further hearing was postponed for May 6. |
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