Interior minister Mladen Marinov said there was no evidence to suggest the murder was related to Marinova’s work: “It is about rape and murder.” He added that there was no information that she had been threatened. 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 pair were briefly detained by police while attempting to stop the destruction of documents linked to the scheme, drawing condemnation from Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Slovak investigative journalist Ján 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.
– Bulgaria has been rocked by the brutal murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova, who was found dead in a park on Saturday afternoon. Police say the 30-year-old TV host was raped, beaten, and strangled in a riverside park in the town of Ruse, Balkan Insight reports. Authorities told reporters Sunday that they are trying to determine whether the murder was linked to her work, and they are considering "all versions" of events. Marinova, who was also the administrative director of the regional channel TVN, was found dead about two hours after she told friends she was going for a run to prepare for an upcoming marathon, the Monitor reports. Prosecutors say possessions including Marinova's cell phone, car keys, and most of her clothing were missing. The Guardian reports that in the most recent episode of her current affairs show Detector, Marinova spoke to investigative journalists looking into alleged fraud involving EU funds, politicians, and large infrastructure companies. The two reporters she spoke to were briefly detained after the show aired. The Committee to Protect Journalists "is shocked by the barbaric murder," spokesman Tom Gibson said in a statement. "Bulgarian authorities must employ all efforts and resources to carry out an exhaustive inquiry and bring to justice those responsible."