CFPs: Boosting Fact-Checking Activities in Europe

• Eligibility Criteria
  – Applicants shall be legal entities employing fact-checkers and abiding by recognised ethical and professional standards;
  – Should an applicant not be a signatory to any code, it should explain how it ensures de fac to adherence to the ethical and professional standards applicable to the type of activities carried out by its organisation;
  – Proposals from individual entities are eligible if submitted by: Small-sized independent fact-checking and news media organisations with up to 50 employees, and up to € 10 million turnover or € 10 million total balance sheet, Non-governmental Organisations, Universities, Research centres, Educational institutions and Non-profit organisations.
• Type of Funding: Programmatic
• Target Region: Europe
• Application Language: English

The European Media & Information Fund has announced the Boosting Fact-checking Activities in Europe to support projects from independent fact-checking organisations, which play a key role in limiting the negative effects of disinformation on the public discourse and democratic processes.

Objectives

Independent fact-checking organisations play a key role in limiting the negative effects of disinformation on the public discourse and democratic processes. In addition to raising public awareness about concrete disinformation cases, their work feeds into mainstream news, media literacy practices and research, thereby entailing a strong multiplier effect.

Priorities

This Call aims at strengthening the European fact-checking ecosystem by focusing on two priority actions:

• Urgent actions: Projects designed to increase coverage, depth, and speed of fact-checking activities by organisations that commit to producing regular flows of fact-checks.
• Scale-up projects: Freelance collaborations within newsrooms and/or the integration of state-of-the-art technologies for content verification and media and social media monitoring.

Expectations

The projects funded under this Call are expected to:

• raise public awareness and empower diverse readerships in different European countries to critically assess news and information accessed through different media, notably online;
• foster knowledge-sharing between fact-checking organisations, civil society, researchers, media outlets and online platforms;
• facilitate the creation of a European network of independent fact-checking organisations;
• stimulate innovation in fact-checking organisations, newsrooms and improvement of journalistic skills;
• help reduce the impact in Europe of disinformation campaigns, including foreign interference and influence operations carried out outside Europe.

Funding Information

Urgent Actions: €55,000 (6 months)

Scale-up projects: €80,000 (12 months)

See here to learn more and apply.

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