Berlin, October 7, 2018--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Bulgarian authorities to conduct a rigorous, thorough investigation into the killing of Viktoria Marinova, presenter and administrative director for local television channel TVN. Marinova, 30, was found dead yesterday in the Bulgarian town of Ruse, 300 km (185 miles) northeast of the capital Sofia; she had been raped, beaten, and strangled, according to
media
reports
that cited Bulgarian police.
"CPJ is shocked by the barbaric murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova," said CPJ European Union Representative Tom Gibson in Brussels. "Bulgarian authorities must employ all efforts and resources to carry out an exhaustive inquiry and bring to justice those responsible."
It was not clear whether the murder was linked to Marinova's journalistic activities,
Balkan Insight
reported. The Ruse prosecution office and local police
stated
at a press conference today that they would look at "all versions" of the murder, according to
Balkan Insight.
Marinova's last broadcast was an
interview
with Romanian journalist Attila Biro from the investigative news site
Rise
Project
and his Bulgarian counterpart, Dimitar Stoyanov, from investigative news site
Bivol
, who were looking into allegations of fraud involving EU funds for the global investigative reporting platform Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Bulgarian news site
Terminal 3
reported
. The two reporters were briefly detained by Bulgarian police in September, CPJ
reported
.
According to CPJ research, two investigative journalists have been killed in the EU in the past year in connection with their work. Slovak investigative journalist
Jan Kuciak
was shot dead in February 2018 in Slovakia, and prominent Maltese investigative journalist and blogger
Daphne Caruana Galizia
was killed in October 2017 when the car that she was driving exploded near her house in northern Malta.