Dutch journalist shot in the head multiple time. Greek crime reporter killed in Athens 2-3 months ago. Caruana blown up in Malta 3-4 years ago. Some other Slovakian journalist murdered 3-4 years ago.

So these events are few, but they happen. And they send messages to other investigative journalists (and there aren't many good ones out there, especially ones who specialise in crime/corruption), to shut their mouths.

For ever shooting event, there are hundreds of cases of threats, intimidation etc on journalists. Usually threats are enough to quiet ppl.