In a memo sent to members this morning and seen by Deadline, BAFTA said:
We want to reassure you that we have treated this matter with the utmost seriousness, care and proper process at every stage. The BAFTA Board of Trustees has remained right across this matter, has met a number of times and are fully supportive of all actions taken. We asked for individuals to come forward with their accounts and identify themselves, as they have done with The Guardian, but due to the anonymous claims and the lack of firsthand specificity, we did not have sufficient grounds to take action.
We acted as quickly and supportively as we could, even though we had only received the most generic of claims and no actual firsthand information to investigate allegations which were potentially of a criminal nature. We very much regret that women felt unable to provide us with the kind of firsthand testimony that has now appeared in The Guardian. Had we been in receipt of this, we would never have presented the award to Noel Clarke.”
“We’re conscious of how hard it is to report these issues. Victims could discuss the issues raised in a safe and confidential environment.” cc Patrick Whitesell, Jason Lublin, Ari Emanuel. Loyalty doesn’t pay with them. No safe or confidential environment. WME Endeavor Endeavor
'Safeguarding Minister Victoria Atkins told radio station LBC this morning that organisations need to look very carefully at the ‘conduct and behaviour’ of people they are giving awards to'?, like Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, Harvey Weinstein and Scott Rudin and likely many more