An NGO headed by the president’s elder son, Namal Rajapaksa, has issued a statement calling for immediate action to ensure the safety of Sirasa News Editor Susil Kedelpitiya now under threat.

Yoshitha Rajapaksa, now with the Navy, is vice-president of Tharunayata Hetak and its four-member executive committee comprises Sanjeeva Siribaddana, Janaka Sri Waranasinghe, R.M.P.B. Wickrema, Sri Ranga and Emalka Hapuarachchi.

Observers noted that the organization kept silent on Mervyn Silva’s Rupavahini adventure and the attack on a senior producer who had publicly protested about the non-cabinet minister’s behaviour.

The Tharunyata Hetak statement comes soon after claims that journalist Sampath Lakmal who was murdered in early July, 2006 had been a paid military informant.

Lakmal was lured out of his house where he lived with his mother and shot dead. Both military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara and police spokesman DIG N.K.Illangakoon have denied the ``paid informant’’ claim attributed to the CID according to the latest issue of the Ravaya.