Bulgarian journalists warn of cover-up after reporter killed

COLLEAGUES of the journalist raped and murdered in a Bulgarian park last week have called for an independent investigation into her death, amid fears she may have been targeted because of her reporting on alleged corruption.

Victoria Marinova was found murdered in a park in Ruse, a town on the Danube on the country’s northern border, on Saturday. She had been beaten, raped and strangled.

Bulgarian police have said they are examining all possible motives for the killing, including the possibility that it was linked to her work.

Investigative reporters who worked with her on her last report said they feared authorities were trying to “hide something” and warned it would be premature to rule out a motive connected with her work.

“We don’t want to exclude the possibility that she was targeted because of her journalistic position. But Bulgarian authorities are trying to downplay this part of the story. We think they are trying to hide something,” said Atanas Chobanov, the editor of the Bulgarian investigative site Bivol.

Mladen Marinov, the Bulgarian interior minister said yesterday there was no evidence to suggest the killing was linked to the journalist’s work. “It is about rape and murder,” he said.

Ms Marinova was a presenter on TVN, a local television station based in Ruse. The 30-year-old mother of one had recently launched an investigative journalism strand on the channel. Her first and final programme in this slot, which went out on Sept 30, covered an investigation by Bivol into alleged embezzlement of EU funds earmarked for infrastructure projects.

Ms Marinova was planning a report about a separate case of alleged embezzlement when she was killed.

“She was not involved in the investigation. She gave us the possibility to speak about it on air,” said Mr Chobanov. “We don’t say she was killed because of that. We don’t know. But we don’t think we can exclude it.”

Mr Chobanov said he did not know whether Ms Marinova had received any threats. However, he said he had received a credible tip-off that Bivol staff might be targeted following the publication of the original investigation last month.

Sotir Tsatsarov, the country’s chief prosecutor, said investigators were following all lines of inquiry into what he called an “extremely brutal and extremely monstrous” crime.

Boyko Borissov, the Bulgarian prime minister, said “a large amount” of DNA evidence had been obtained, and that it was only a matter of time before the murderer was caught.

Marinova is the third journalist reporting on corruption to be murdered in an EU country in the past year.