Journalist Ognyan Boyadjiev, editor of europe.bg portal, was brutally attacked by two men in his apartment in Sofia's Ivan Vazov borough in the late hours of August 9 2009, Bulgarian National Radio said.

Boyadjiev, 34, answered the door to the two men just before midnight who pushed him inside and starting beating him. He was left in a serious condition with knife wounds to his neck.

The attackers cut off the telephone wires and took away Boyadjiev's mobile phone, some personal belongings and his credit cards before escaping. However he managed to call an ambulance via internet. He is currently in Sofia's Military Hospital where his condition is stable and not said to be life threatening.

Boyadjiev is a familiar face in Bulgarian media. He was the first anchor of the morning show of the first private national broadcaster bTV. He has also spent time working as a radio journalist for Bulgarian National Radio and the Bulgarian desk of Radio France International.

In 2007 Boyadjiev was leader of the election campaign for right-wing candidate for Sofia mayor Martin Zaimov.

Little less than a year ago another Bulgarian journalist Ognyan Stefanov, Editor-in-Chief of Bulgarian-language news website frognews.bg, was brutally assaulted on September 22 outside a restaurant in Sofia.

He was attacked by four men wearing masks posing as police. They broke his legs and hands, and inflicted other severe injuries.

Stefanov's name appeared in the media after the State Agency for National Security (SANS) said that he was one of the people behind the launch of opasnite.net website, which he denied.

The website existed only for a few weeks, publishing anonymous tabloid stories about the personal lives of public officials, including President Georgi Purvanov.

According to SANS, the website contained classified information which was why an investigation called Gallery was launched.
Later it was revealed that the aim of Gallery case was to trace the contacts of Stefanov with people from political circles. The case ended, however, with a row when it was uncovered that phones of journalists of almost all national media and members of parliament had been tapped.

On August 6 2009 newly elected Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said information in the Gallery case was to be declassified "because of the wide public interest".