Veteran journalist TJS George passes away

TJS George, an_ internationally recognised veteran journalist, author and Padma Bhushan awardee, passed at a private hospital at the age of 97 in Bengaluru on Friday.

- N Chithra

George was widely respected for his incisive writings, often marked by satire and sarcasm. Born in Kerala on May 7, 1928, Thayil Jacob Sony George, graduated from the Madras Christian College with honours in English Literature and began his long and illustrious journalism career at the ‘Free Press

Journal in Bombay in 1950.

Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, who at the time would call the FPJ News Desk the ‘Malayali Club’ (as recalled by TJS in a column) was among his colleagues. He went on to be associated with the Far Eastern Review and became the Founder Editor of the Asiaweek in Hong Kong.

“The success of Asiaweek was remarkable. And it was overnight. Clearly, there was a widely felt need for an Asian journal with an Asian viewpoint,” he recalled in an interview three years ago.