European leaders demand an investigation into a murdered Bulgarian journalist: NPR

A Romanian was briefly arrested on Tuesday following the rape and murder of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova on Saturday. After an interrogation, a Bulgarian official announced that this unidentified man would be released without charge.

Marinova's beaten and strangled body was found in bushes near the banks of the Danube River in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse, police said.

But even as investigators sought to establish a motive and apprehend a suspect, there were contradictory accounts of whether Marinova was targeted for her journalism or whether she had been a victim of a random crime.

The Bulgarian government indicated that Marinova's attack did not concern his work.

"There is talk of rape and murder," said Interior Minister Mladen Marinov, according to the New York Times. And Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Sunday that the authorities were working with the team of "best forensic scientists" to solve the murder.

Attorney General Sotir Tsatsarov said Monday that even if nothing was ruled out, Marinova's murder was unlikely to be linked to his work, the newspaper reported. Time.

But others have suggested that the brutal killing of an anti-corruption animator in a country known for its widespread corruption was perhaps more than a coincidence.

"A courageous journalist falls again into the struggle for truth and against corruption," said Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission.

"In some countries, law enforcement is just not enough," Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told NPR. "And impunity is widespread, which means you can sometimes silence a critical journalist or close an investigation by having this journalist killed."

Mahoney says it's too early to say whether the murder of Marinova belongs to this category.

Marinova briefly presented a program on the Bulgarian channel TVN, entitled Detector. The first episode aired on Sept. 30 and featured two investigative journalists investigating alleged fraud committed by businessmen and politicians involving European funds, reports the BBC. Journalists Attila Biro and Dimitar Stoyanov were arrested in September for their work.

After his death, prosecutors opened an investigation into GP Group, the Bulgarian private construction company that Biro and Stoyanov have highlighted in their report, according to the Associated Press.

Claude Moraes, President of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, responsible for civil liberties, request Europol will stand ready to participate in the investigation into the death of Marinova.

"The shocking information about the murder of Victoria Marinova, an investigative journalist, apparently related to her reporting on investigations into allegations of corruption involving European funds, prompt us to take immediate action at all levels and with all legal means, "wrote Moraes.

By a spokesman for the United StatesSecretary-General António Guterres called on "all governments to strengthen press freedom and to ensure that crimes against journalists are held accountable".

Marinova is at least the third journalist killed in an EU country this year, after investigative journalists Jan Kuciak of Slovakia and Daphne Caruana Galizia of Malta also made themselves dead.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Bulgaria last among the EU countries in terms of freedom of the press.

"Oligarchs exercising a monopoly over the media and authorities suspected of corruption or links with organized crime, journalists are exposed to many forms of pressure and intimidation when they try to exercise as a journalist in Bulgaria, "said the press freedom group.

In a report published in July on the state of media freedom in Bulgaria, Reporters Without Borders said: "Fortunately, no investigative journalist was killed in Bulgaria for his work, but there are documented plans and attempts at murder, cruel executions, beatings, car fires and bombs aimed at investigative journalists. "

In his final broadcast, Marinova tackled the constraints of practicing journalism in his country.

"The government and the business world are putting a lot of pressure on the media owners and the media themselves," Marinova said. according to a translation by the Bulgarian website of Bivol investigation news.

"The investigative journalists are systematically dismissed," she said.