October 29, 2009 (AFP) - Sri Lanka’s president ordered police to probe death threats against journalists of a newspaper whose founding editor was murdered earlier this year, a spokesman said Thursday.

President Mahinda Rajapakse asked the police to carry out a "very thorough investigation" into the death threats against two senior members of the Sunday Leader newspaper, a spokesman for the president’s office said.

The investigation was ordered as the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was greatly concerned by last week’s death threats against Sunday Leader chief editor Frederica Jansz and her news editor Munza Mushtaq.

The paper’s founding editor, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was gunned down near his office in January. The case remains unsolved.

"Our concern is that these most recent threats, like so many others, and the deaths of 11 journalists since President Rajapakse came to power in 2005, will remain unexplained," CPJ’s Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz said.

"The air of impunity surrounding violence against the media is having a chilling effect on journalists," he added in a statement.

Jansz said the letters she and Mushtaq received last week were identical and warned them that they would be killed unless they stopped writing.