MAY 16, 2006
Posted: June 30, 2006
Neville De Silva, The Sunday Times,
THREATENED
A veteran Sri Lankan journalist based in London was threatened after a Web site that supports the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ((LTTE)) posted his picture and accused him of being a Sri Lankan government spy. Neville De Silva, U.K. correspondent and columnist for the Sri Lankan Sunday Times, has written extensively about the LTTE.
Pro-LTTE Web site Nitharsanam posted De Silva’s picture making the accusations and accusing him of being, in the Tamil language, “an enemy of the people.”
“They accused me of being anti-Tamil and incited Tamils to take immediate action against me,” De Silva told CPJ. “I have not stepped outside my home on police advice.”
This was not the first time De Silva received threats for his journalistic works. He says in 1989, he had to leave Sri Lanka after receiving death threats by the Marxist organization Janata Vimukti Peramuna.
De Silva said that although Scotland Yard and the local police in Harrow, northwest London, have been informed of the case, they are not actively investigating the matter or providing him with protection.