Mediterranean Media Initiative Oceanic Crime and Ecoviolence Investigation Partnership Call

• Eligibility criteria:
  – Applications are open to journalists and groups of journalists working in any medium (online, print, television, radio) and other expert media practitioners with professional reporting experience.
  – EJN welcomes applications from early-career journalists and experienced reporters with a track record of environmental issues. They encourage applications from freelance reporters and staff from all types of media organizations – international, national, local, and community-based.
• Type of funding: Programmatic
• Target countries: Any country bordering the Mediterranean Sea
• Application language: English or French

EJN’s Mediterranean Media Initiative is looking to support investigations, especially those that are transboundary, which seek to expose unauthorized fishing by industrial or semi-industrial vessels, as well as other harmful environmental practices impacting the marine environment.

The types of investigations they are looking to support would place these issues within the wider context of anthropogenic stressors such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and increased pollution and their impact on human security and environmental justice.

Furthermore, the Mediterranean Media Initiative would like to increase reporting that places fisheries-related offenses in relation to a broader set of criminal practices rather than as an isolated domain, as also pointed out by recent reports and initiatives by international bodies such as INTERPOL and the High-Level Ocean Panel.

The Mediterranean Media Initiative has secured funding from the Adessium Foundation to commission transboundary investigations and work collectively with partners wishing to develop reports focusing on the Mediterranean.

In addition to providing journalists with a story grant, the EJN Med Media team would be providing capacity support which includes:

• Participation in a dedicated 90-minute webinar featuring investigation and thematic experts,
• Access to the investigative expertise of EJN Med Media Director Mona Samari, contributing author on Oceanic Crime, Spheres of Transnational Ecoviolence: Environmental Crime, Human Security, and Justice, by Peter Stoett and Delon Alain Omrow;
• Access to satellite tracking, illegal fishing, and thematic experts able to cross-reference data and evidence, if required;
• Tutorial in evidence cross-referencing of satellite data;
• Resource materials, including those related to the effective use of encryption.

See here to learn more and apply.

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