Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, or J.S. Tissainayagam, is a journalist focusing on South Asian politics and has written for Foreign Policy and Asian Correspondent. He is the winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Ethical and Courageous Journalism (2009), the CPJ International Press Freedom Award (2009) and the International Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards (2009). He was Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard and Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. He worked in Sri Lanka as a journalist for 20 years. In 2008, he was arrested by the Sri Lanka government for writing critically of the regime. Convicted under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Due to the international outcry raised by illegality of the judgement he was pardoned after 675 days in detention.
