Six journalists killed in Europe since the start of 2017

Western Europe was shaken in October 2017 by the brutal "Mafia-style" murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia .

She was looking into numerous cases of corruption on the Mediterranean island when a powerful bomb blew her car up near her home.

The trial into Caruana Galizia's death continues with at least three men accused of her murder.

Early reports suggest that J'an Kuciak could also have been killed due to the content of his work. Like Caruana, the young Slovakian died at home where he was shot along with his partner.

Slovakia, unaccustomed to this type of violence, has been left reeling.

Here are the six journalists who died while working or carrying out investigations in the last year.

J'an Kuciak

J'an Kuciak was 27 years old and reported on corruption and tax evasion. He and his girlfriend were shot dead at his home in Velka Maca, near Bratislava, on February 25, 2018.

Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia was 53 years old when she died. She reported on corruption and money laundering in Malta and published numerous articles based on the Panama Papers.

She was killed using a remote-controlled car bomb outside her home in Bidnija, Malta, on October 16, 2017. Maltese police arrested about 10 people in connection with the case.

Three suspects, Vince Muscat along with brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, were charged with the journalist's murder last December in a complicated trial which saw two judges withdraw from the case. All three plead not guilty.

Kim Wall

The murder of Kim Wall, 30 years old, was far from a Mafia-related case-the Swedish journalist died while working but not for political reasons.

She disappeared on August 10, 2017, while making a report on a prototype civil submarine created by the Danish native Peter Madsen.

Her body was found in the sea, mutilated, almost 12 days later. Madsen has been formally charged with Wall's murder and expected to be sentenced in April.

Dimitri Popkov

Dimitri Popkov was 42 years old when he was killed. He published articles about corruption and abuse of power in Russia in his newspaper Ton-M. He also criticised officials in the ruling United Russia party.

On May 24, 2017, he was shot five times and his body was found in his garden in Minusinsk, Siberia. Authorities have opened an investigation into his death that has, as yet, proved fruitless.

Saeed Karimian

Saeed Karimian, a 45-year-old Iranian television executive, was killed on April 19, 2017, in Istanbul by several hooded men who shot him with his partner, a native of Kuwait.

His GEM TV network was dedicated to translating Western television programmes into Farsi.

Karimian was condemned in absentia in Tehran for "spreading propaganda against Iran". The Turkish police are conducting an ongoing investigation into the pair's death.

Nicolai Andrushchenko

Nicolai Andrushchenko died on April 19, 2017 in Russia, at the age of 73, six weeks after he was brutally beaten unconscious by a group of strangers.

St Petersburg police investigated his death but his attackers were never identified.

Andrushchenko was one of the founders of the newspaper Novy Petersburg and specialised in local news, crime and human rights.