In a July 2006 editorial, under the headline, "Providing security to Tamils now will define northeastern politics of the future," Tissainayagam wrote: "It is fairly obvious that the government is not going to offer them any protection.
"[10] On 31 August 2009, the High Court of Sri Lanka sentenced Tissainayagam to a total of 20 years rigorous imprisonment, for arousing "communal feelings" by writing and publishing articles that criticised the government's treatment of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians affected by the war, and for raising money to fund the magazine in which the articles were published in furtherance of terrorism.
[6][11][12] In a statement to mark the World Press Freedom Day, US President Barack Obama said Tissainayagam and other journalists like him were "guilty of nothing more than a passion for truth and a tenacious belief that a free society depends on an informed citizenry.
"[3] President Obama said : "In every corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed … Emblematic examples of this distressing reality are figures like J.S.
During his detention without charge, among the people who expressed concern and opposition to this, were Sri Lankan religious leaders such as Colombo's Anglican Bishop Reverend Duleep De Chickera[15] and the Sinhala Buddhist monk Ven Samitha Thera.
[16] The Sri Lankan government defended his trial and conviction, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, saying the verdict was handed out by an independent judge and that the government can not interfere with the courts and that "attempts now being made to pooh-pooh the charges in the indictment filed against Tissanayagam, rather than seen as any part of a vibrant campaign for media freedom, can be seen as an attempt at interfering with the judiciary and judicial process of (Sri Lanka)".
[20] On 3 May 2010 the Sri Lankan government announced that Tissainayagam would be pardoned by President Rajapaksa to mark the 2010 World Press Freedom Day.
Tissainayagam in 2009, a terrible year for Sri Lanka," said Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary-general of the Paris-based press rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
"[21] Tissainayagam also won the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award in 2009, but could not go to receive it due to his imprisonment.