Call for applications to select regional collaborative and investigative media hubs in Europe

• Eligibility Criteria
  – Local/regional non-profit media organisations, public and commercial media/newsrooms, media associations and cooperatives from relevant countries
  – Media organisations that are state owned and/or editorially controlled by state authorities are not eligible to apply.
  – Only organisations present and operational in one of the above countries are eligible to apply.
• Funding Type: Programmatic
• Target Country: Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the Visegrád Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), and Southern Europe (Greece, Italy and Spain)
• Application Language: English

Free Press Unlimited (FPU), jointly with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Tactical Tech (TT), is launching an open call for applications for the selection of three regional media hubs in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the Visegrád Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), and Southern Europe (Greece, Italy and Spain), as part of a broader initiative aimed at enabling and enhancing independent collaborative and investigative journalism across Europe.

The call is open to media organisations that have a proven track record and an established media network in the field of collaborative and investigative journalism in their respective regions (Baltic States, Visegrád Four, Southern Europe). The programme’s guiding principle is regional engagement and empowering existing regional initiatives as opposed to creating new ones.

Media hubs will act as an informal “network of networks” and will support quality collaborative and investigative journalism by promoting and implementing a common set of ethical codes, professional principles and guidelines in line with the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI). The hubs’ networks will have access to an accelerator for start-ups, including the availability of seed financing and micro grants to explore innovative ideas in the field.

As part of a broader initiative aimed at enabling and enhancing independent collaborative and investigative journalism across Europe, selected institutions will benefit from financial support, training, resource sharing and exchange of best practices, collaborations, access to innovative methods and techniques – all following established journalism standards. The average awarded funding is expected to be around 25,000 EUR per grantee but it can range from 17,000 EUR to 30,000 EUR.

Applications can be submitted until 15 November 2021, 18:00 CET via this application form.

Find more details about the eligibility criteria, application and selection process in this Call for Applications document.