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A Bulgarianot journalist who reported on an investigation into allegations of corruption involving funds from the European Union was murdered in Ruse, a Danube city, authorities said Sunday.
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Prosecutors in the Balkan country said that Viktoria Marinova's 30-year-old body was found in a Ruse park on Saturday. They only identified her by her initials.
"There is rape and murder," Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told reporters. He added that there was no evidence to suggest that the killing was related to Marinova's work and that there was no information that she had been threatened.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told reporters, "I am convinced that the revelation of assassination is a matter of time. The best criminologists have been sent to Ruse, do not hurry them. A large amount of DNA has been obtained. "
Police should disclose more details on Monday.
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"His death was caused by blows to the head and asphyxiation, his cell phone, his car keys, his glasses and some of his clothes disappeared," said Ruse regional prosecutor Georgy Georgiev.
Marinova, who was a board member of the TVN TV channel based in Ruse – one of the most popular TV channels of the Northeast Bulgaria – is the third journalist to have been murdered in the European Union in one year. Local media reported that Marinova had recently participated in the coverage of a survey conducted by a group of Bulgarianot journalists to companies involved in EU-funded infrastructure projects managed by local authorities.
Last October, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta's best-known investigator journalist, was killed when a powerful bomb exploded his car and Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak was shot dead in February.
"With great pain and insurmountable grief, the TVN team is facing the loss of our dear colleague Victoria Marinova and we pray that we will sympathize with the sorrow of his loved ones and his colleagues," said TVN in a short statement.
Bulgaria This year, Reporters Without Borders' world index of press freedom was 111th in the world, which is lower than any other member of the European Union and lower than other countries in the Western Balkans. some are candidates for EU membership.
In October 2017, hundreds of Bulgarianot journalists protested in downtown Sofia against the threats of Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov against the largest broadcasters in the country. He accused the mainstream media of carrying out a "massive defamation campaign" against him.
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