site.btaBulgarian Investigative Reporter Christo Grozev Named European Journalist of the Year

Bulgarian investigative reporter Christo Grozev will receive the European Journalist of the Year Award at the PRIX EUROPA festival in Berlin for tracking down Jan Marsalek, the fugitive former director of German payment company Wirecard, in Moscow and exposing him as a Russian spy, the festival’s organizing committee said in a press release. The event will take place from October 5 to 10.

Several hundred media professionals from across Europe will gather in the German capital to select the best European audio, digital, and video productions of the year. A jury will award 14 trophies, chosen from 162 nominated works representing 30 countries. A total of 585 productions were submitted for the competition. The remaining winners will be announced on October 10 during the awards ceremony in Berlin.

Together with an international team that included German media outlets Der Spiegel and ZDF, the Russian platform The Insider, Austria's Der Standard, and US broadcaster PBS, Grozev located Marsalek's hideout and proved his links to Russia’s intelligence services, the press release said.

Specializing in investigations into the machinations of Russia's Federal Security Service, Grozev played a central role in reconstructing the downing of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine by a Russian missile system in 2014, which killed 300 people, the press release added. He also helped uncover who is behind the attempted poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018 and of Alexei Navalny in 2020. Grozev has been under surveillance by a spy ring for years and has been placed on a wanted list in Russia. He also faces concrete threats to his life.

The 39th PRIX EUROPA is supported by 24 European public media organizations. Founded in 1987, the media festival has grown into one of Europe’s leading platforms for quality media content that promotes cohesion and cooperation across the continent, the organizers said. Traditionally, the event is hosted by German public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, with support from local Berlin authorities.