Sri Lankan prison officials escort Tamil journalist J. S. Tissainayagam (C) to a prison bus on August 31, 2009. On the same day Tissainayagam, 45, was sentenced by Sri Lanka's High Court to 20 years in prison for causing 'racial hatred' and 'supporting terrorism,' he was also named the first winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. Tissainayagam was selected for the Peter Mackler Award, named for a 30-year veteran of Agence France-Presse who died last year, by the US branch of Reporters Without Borders RSF and Global Media Forum (GMF), a company founded by Mackler to train journalists and non-profit organizations to use the media as a tool for social change.