Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova has become the third journalist murdered in the European Union over the last year and the fourth since the beginning of 2017.

The body of this 30-year-old man was found on Saturday near the Danube in Ruse, northern Bulgaria. Police said that she had been beaten, raped and strangled.

It is unclear whether the murder of Marinova is related to his journalistic work. The investigators are still trying to find potential witnesses and to establish the reason for his murder. According to the Bulgarian media, Marinova recently interviewed Romanian journalists who were investigating politicians and businessmen for alleged corruption of EU funds.

"These are rapes and murders," Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said, apparently concluding that there was no evidence to suggest that the killing was related to Marinova's work.

Marinova worked for a small local TV channel called TVN, where she presented two investigative programs. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an intergovernmental organization, has called for a "thorough investigation" into its rapes and killings, noting "a trend towards increasing attacks on women journalists".

Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb in October. She had been working on the so-called Panama Papers, leaking documents revealing financial information on accounts abroad of senior officials. Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend were shot dead in February. Kuciak was investigating tax fraud. Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall was murdered last year by the Danish inventor Peter Madsen during a terrible case in Denmark. Wall was killed and maimed after climbing Madsen's submarine for an interview.

Bulgaria was ranked 111th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index established by Reporters Without Borders this year. This is lower than any other EU member. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an organization that promotes freedom of the press, at least 48 journalists have been murdered around the world in 2018 worldwide.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Sunday that he was personally investigating reports that Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist in the Washington Post, was killed while on his way to the consulate. Saudi Arabia in Istanbul last week. Khashoggi's wife reported her disappearance after her absence from an appointment. Khashoggi is a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

More: Report: Turkish officials say that a team of "planned killings" has killed a Saudi journalist

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