Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev claimed in a tweet posted February 17 that he and his family are “banned” from the upcoming Bafta Film Awards (London, February 19) due to him being a “security risk.”
Grozev (bottom in pic) is lead Russia investigator for Bellingcat, the Netherlands-based investigative journalism group, and is a core protagonist in Daniel Roher’s feature doc Navalny which investigates the poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Grozev wrote February 17 in the first of three tweets: “I was surprised to discover that my whole family and I have all been banned by British police from attending this weekend’s BAFTA awards where the documentary #Navalny is nominated. The reason stated: we ‘represent a public security risk.’
“I understand the need to keep the public safe (although I don’t understand how my son or teenage daughter constitute risk to the public),” he later wrote. “But moments like this show the growing dangers to independent journalists around the world”
“These dangers don’t stem just from murderous dictators, but also from having journalists’ voices hushed – instead of amplified – by the civilized world they are trying to serve,” he added.
In a statement BAFTA confirmed that Grozev would not be in attendance on Sunday. “The safety of all our guests and staff at the ceremony is always our highest priority and we have robust and appropriate security arrangements in place every year,” the statement said.
A Metropolitan police statement published February 17 confirmed contact with BAFTA: “We cannot comment on the safety of an individual or the advice they may have been given. However, the situation that journalists face around the world and the fact that some journalists face the hostile intentions of foreign states whilst in the UK is a reality that we are absolutely concerned with.
“We are committed to working with our intelligence partners to investigate these threats and to take other steps to ensure the safety of those concerned. Despite our efforts, on protective security and on investigations, we recognise the impact of those threats on those affected.
“The responsibility for such threats and their potential impact on the wider public lies with the hostile state actors behind them and we have significantly increased the resources applied to bearing down on those.
“More generally, police do not and cannot ban anyone from attending a private event. Decisions about the attendance at an event is a matter for the event organisers.“We recognise that our advice can mean organisers have difficult choices to make when deciding how best to mitigate any risks to the security of their event, and we are grateful for the ongoing engagement of BAFTA.”
