First editor to be imprisoned for exercising freedom of expression: Media patriarch TJS George passes away at 97

BENGALURU: Veteran journalist TJS George passed away. He died at his residence in Bengaluru following a chronic illness. He was 97 years old.

Thayil Jacob Sony George alias TJS George was born on May 7, 1928, to Thayil Thomas Jacob, a magistrate, and Chachiamma Jacob. He worked in journalism for more than half a century in India and abroad. He started his career as a journalist in 1950 at the Free Press Journal in Bombay. TJS George worked as a journalist for the International Press Institute, The Searchlight, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He was the founding editor of Asiaweek from Hong Kong.

TJS George was the first editor to be imprisoned for exercising freedom of expression in independent India. It happened when he was the editor of the Searchlight newspaper in Patna. Defence Minister VK Krishna Menon came to Patna to argue his case. TJS George has written twenty books, including in English and Malayalam. These include biographies of great figures like VK Krishna Menon, MS Subbulakshmi, Nargis, Pothan Joseph, and Lee Kuan Yew, as well as his own memoir, Ghoshyatra.

In 2011, the country honoured him with the Padma Bhushan award. He also received the Swadeshabhimani award in 2017. His wife is Ammu George, and his children are Sheba and Man Booker Prize shortlisted Jeet Thayil.