The head of the United Nations culture organisation UNESCO on Monday condemned savage murder of TV journalist Victoria Marinova, whose body was found at the weekend in the Bulgarian city of Ruse bearing signs of torture and rape.
“I condemn the murder of Victoria Marinova,” said Audrey Azoulay, urging Bulgarian authorities to carry out a "thorough investigation" of the brutal murder and bring the perpetrators to justice.
"This is essential to defend freedom of expression and freedom of information in Bulgaria and, not least importantly, to ensure women’s safety, dignity and freedom," she stated.
The use of sexual and abuse and violent assault to silence a woman journalist was "an outrage against the dignity and basic human rights of every woman," Azoulay said.
“Furthermore, I am deeply concerned about the rising proportion of women among media personnel who come under attack,” Azoulay said, adding that more needed to be done to protect female journalists.
Marinova was the presenter of current affairs programme “Detector” on local, privately-owned television broadcaster TVN, Unesco said. The 30-year-old had reportedly been raped, beaten around the head and suffocated.
In 2017, four out of seven journalists killed in Europe were women and the proportion of women media professionals killed worldwide last year rose to 14 percent from 4 percent in 2012, Unesco noted.
Bulgaria was ranked 111 out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders world press freedom index this year, lower than any other EU country.
