Media Ownership Monitoring System

• Eligibility Criteria
  – Applicants must be legal entities (public or private bodies);
  – Applicants must be established in one of the EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs);
  – Proposals may be submitted by any of the following applicants or combinations of non-profit organisation (private or public), universities, educational institutions, international organisations, research centres.
• Type of Funding: Programmatic
• Target Region: Europe
• Application Language: English

The European Commission (EC) is seeking applications for its Media Ownership Monitoring System program to fund a project setting up a publicly available database containing relevant information on media outlets.

The European Democracy Action Plan and the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan aim to strengthen media freedom and media pluralism. One of the measures announced is to improve the understanding and public availability of media ownership information.

To achieve this objective, the EDAP announced that the Commission would co-finance the new Media Ownership Monitoring System, a pilot project setting up a publicly available database containing relevant information on media outlets.

Improving media ownership transparency is also an objective of the European Media Freedom Act. The first pilot project was launched in September 2021, followed by a second project that extended the scope to cover the 27 Member States.

Eligible Activities

The activities to be covered under this Media Ownership Monitoring System project are the following:

• Check and update where needed the information in the publicly available country-based databases on the main media outlets that shape public opinion and the corporate entities and individuals which own or otherwise control them.
• To the extent possible, expand the databases currently available by adding additional media outlets.
• Applicants are invited to indicate the number and types of media they intend to add to the database as well as the criteria for selecting them.
• Update the exiting contextual narratives of the country-specific environment and the detailed legal assessment which lends itself to comparative analysis.
• Update the analysis of the existing risk indicators in the legal, economic and technical domains, focusing on media ownership and control.
• Ensure dissemination of the results via a dedicated online platform, launch events, press conferences and appropriate social media coverage. The use of interactive databases, maps and data visualisation is encouraged. Applicants are invited to describe their dissemination strategy and ways to ensure that the online platform they intend to set up is user-friendly and accessible.

Funding Information

• The available call budget is EUR 500,000. The EU co-financing is limited to a maximum of 90% of the total eligible costs.
• Projects should normally range between 10 and 12 months (extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment).

See here to learn more and apply.

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