ATHENS: A veteran Greek crime journalist was shot dead outside his home in Athens on Friday, a police source said, in a rare crime targeting a member of the media. Giorgos Karaivaz, who worked for private TV station Star and also ran the news blog bloko.gr, was shot several times in the southern Athens district of Alimos, the police source told AFP.

“The murder has shocked us all,” government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said in a statement.

“The authorities are already investigating the case,” she added.

Reports said the journalist had been shot by two men on a motorbike.

“The founder and owner of bloko.gr is no longer with us,” Karaivaz’s blog said.

“Somebody chose to silence him, to stop him with bullets from writing his stories,” it said.

According to reports, Karaivaz, who was one of Greece’s longest-tenured and best known crime reporters, was married and had a child. “I can’t even process this information, I’ve known this man for 32 years,” fellow Star TV journalist Vaios Syrros said during the station’s afternoon news show.

While Greek media offices are frequently targeted in firebomb and vandalism attacks, journalist killings are rarer in Greece.

Some journalists request police protection after receiving threats but according to reports, Karaivaz was unguarded.

The shooting occurred at a time when Greek authorities had received criticism for allocating too many police guards to a controversial TV presenter.

Hours before Karaivaz’ murder, Citizen’s Protection Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis had suggested in parliament that state protection was being exploited by “rats of the public sphere” who did not deserve it.

“For the last 20 years, every (police) minister has tried to take back (officers) from ‘VIP duty’ and put them back on the front line,” the minister said.

In July, tabloid newspaper owner Stefanos Chios survived after being shot in the neck and chest by a hooded man outside his home.

The case is still under investigation.

In 2010, radio manager, blogger and investigative journalist Socratis Giolias was also gunned down outside his home. At the time, state TV NET said he had been working on a story about corruption.

A shadowy far-left group claimed responsibility for the crime but the case was never solved.