Tamil journalist J S Tissainaygam convicted under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) by the Sri Lankan Court was on Monday granted bail pending appeal by the Appeal Courts. He was granted cash bail of 50, 000 rupees by the Courts on medical grounds. Tissainayagam was sentenced to 20 years Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) last year in August. <br/><br/>He was arrested on March 7, 2008 by the Terrorism Investigation Division. In almost 30 years since PTA was adopted as a ‘temporary’ measure in Sri Lanka, no individual journalist or media entity had been charged under the PTA. Last year US President Barack Obama speaking on the World Press Freedom Day had said that he was concerned about threats against the media the world over, and mentioned the plight of Sri Lankan journalist J S Tissainayagam who has been detained for over a year. ‘In every corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed: from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, Burma to Uzbekistan, Cuba to Eritrea,’ Obama said in a statement marking World Press Freedom Day on May 3. ‘Emblematic examples of this distressing reality are figures like J S Tissainayagam in Sri Lanka, or Shi Tao and Hu Jia in China.