Giorgos Karaivaz ( el, Γιώργος Καραϊβάζ; 27 November 1968 – 9 April 2021) was a Greek investigative journalist who specialized in

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

. He was assassinated on 9 April 2021.

Biography

Born in ,

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, Karaivaz worked for the television channel Star Channel. He was also founder of the news website ''Bloko''.

Assassination

Karaivaz was shot and killed near his home in Athens suburb of

Alimos Alimos ( el, Άλιμος) is a south district of Athens and a municipality in South Athens regional unit, Greece. It was formed in 1968 comprising two settlements, the suburban seaside town of Kalamaki ( el, Καλαμάκι), and the inland comm ...

on 9 April 2021. The first indications were that the assassination was carried out by those involved in

. Their condolences expressed all Greek parties, as well as the president of the European Commission Ursula von her Leyen, who declared that an assassination of a journalist in a European country is a "despicable, cowardly act", she then expressed her wish that the perpetrators would be found soon. Karaivaz's computer, car and mobile phone were sent to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. Given the fact that he was an active journalist, the police believed that it is possible that they would find evidence leading them to the murderers, as well as to the persons who ordered the assassination. According to their investigations, they concluded that there were two groups of conspirators. The first group was watching Karaivaz when he left the premises of the Star Channel TV station where he worked, who then informed the team of assassins about his movements. The police investigators examined the phone calls of the two assassins along with their accomplices and three videos from security cameras at different points of the site of the assassination. The cameras showed that the assassins checked the area around the street of Themos Anninos before killing the journalist. The investigators have also focused on Karaivaz's contacts, as well as on the reports he published on his website bloko.gr, while hoping to find a clue as to the reasons behind the murder. The

European Federation of Journalists The European Federation of Journalists is the European regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists. It is the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, representing about 320,000 journalists in 71 journalists’ orga ...

announced that they would send a mission to the Greece, partially because of Karaivaz's murder, to assess the concern of media freedom and safety of local journalists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karaivaz, Giorgos 1968 births 2021 deaths Male journalists Greek television journalists Greek investigative journalists Crime journalists Assassinated Greek journalists Deaths by firearm in Greece People from Drama, Greece