site.btaRSF Blows Whistle over Death Threat against Bulgarian News Website Publisher

Sofia, November 25 (BTA) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is blowing the whistle over murder threats against the publisher of the Zov News website, Georgi Ezekiev, and calls on the authorities to look into the matter. "RSF is appalled to learn that Bulgarian criminal gang leaders are allegedly planning to murder Zov News website publisher Georgi Ezekiev and calls on the Bulgarian authorities to carry out an immediate investigation," the organization said in a statement published Friday.

The alleged murder plan came to light earlier this month in the course of a joint investigation by Zov News and the investigative news website Bivol into a drug trafficking ring in which police officers are thought to be implicated. A person who used to be involved in this network told the reporters in a filmed interview that his former mafia bosses were planning to eliminate Ezekiev, RSF says.

One of the reporters participating in this investigation, Maria Dimitrova, meanwhile received threatening messages by phone and on Facebook. Shortly after Dimitrova managed to get one of the gang's victims to talk to her, three unidentified men physically attacked her informant, the statement says.

Pauline Ades-Mevel, the head of RSF's EU-Balkans desk is quoted as saying that they are very worried about the threats to Ezekiev and one of his reporters, who filed a complaint that was ignored by the police. "The Bulgarian authorities must take these threats and attacks seriously, must do everything possible to protect the targets and must carry out a thorough investigation into this affair," she says.

Based in the northwestern town of Vratsa, Zov News became a household name across Bulgaria when in 2015 the Financial Supervision Commission imposed on it the maximum possible fine of 100,000 leva for market manipulation after the website published a report on what appeared to be a run on First Investment Bank. The fine was later revoked by a court.