Have you ever wanted to dive deep into investigative journalism and bring a story that needs deeper analysis to light but never had a proper chance or needed competences to take the first step? We give you the opportunity to do exactly that – Media4Change and European dialogue is launching Investigative Journalism Competition to fund collaborative journalistic investigations. Collaborative teams made of journalists, whose curiosity and attention reaches further than major cities in Lithuania or Slovakia, will share up to EUR 16.000 in each country to implement their investigations.
Investigative Journalism Competition starts today: 32.000 EUR to fund local investigative journalism
Have you ever wanted to dive deep into investigative journalism and bring a story that needs deeper analysis to light but never had a proper chance or needed competences to take the first step? We give you the opportunity to do exactly that – Media4Change and European dialogue is launching Investigative Journalism Competition to fund collaborative journalistic investigations. Collaborative teams made of journalists, whose curiosity and attention reaches further than major cities in Lithuania or Slovakia, will share up to EUR 16.000 in each country to implement their investigations.
Through this competition, participants will have a chance to strengthen their investigative journalism talent with the help of experienced journalists of this field as well as a wide network of international experts. This is a great opportunity to not only find like-minded people to collaborate with and discover new topics, but also learn how to draft investigation plans, and most importantly implement an investigation that will leave a mark in the history of Lithuanian or Slovak investigative journalism. Through this experience, you will build your competencies mastering innovative investigative journalism tools and together with your partners you will bring the light to places, where it’s needed the most – the regions of Lithuania and Slovakia.
Don’t have a specific topic or a team to investigate with?
No problem! We are here to help – we can consult interested applicants about the application process, and will provide a chance to find investigation partners (potential team members) for individual applicants as well as help to discover the potential topics for your investigation and draft investigation proposals with the help of experts in the second round of the competition.
Ready to bring more light and trust in the media to the regions of Lithuania or Slovakia? Start this journey by submitting the application form by 23 March: apply for competition in Lithuania or Slovakia.
Participating teams will receive support and mentoring, and will be invited to submit full investigation proposals. In each Lithuania and Slovakia three (3) teams with the best proposals will receive a grant of EUR 4.000 for the implementation of their investigation. They will use interactive tools to present their work and connect with their audiences. Teams that will not have been awarded a grant will be invited to work on their investigations as well and aim at having the best results with an incentive prize of up to EUR 4.000 awarded in July 2021.
And that is not all! All contestants will be invited to submit their investigations to international awards later this year. The best investigation authors from Lithuania and Slovakia will be awarded and share up to EUR 8.500.
Who can apply?
- Early-in-career or experienced journalists from Lithuania or Slovakia interested in doing investigations and collaborating with others to investigate a locally (at LAU 2, LAU 1, or NUTS 3 as described in Rules and Regulations) important topics falling under an umbrella of corruption, human rights and environment categories.
- Applications can be submitted by both individual journalists, and teams made of freelance journalists or collaborative teams made of different newsrooms’ members
Please note that only teams composed of at least 2 individual journalists will be eligible to get the grant. However, at this stage, we invite individual journalists to apply too as through the matchmaking process we will give you a chance to find teammates and form a team to draft a proposal for collaborative investigation.
Sounds like you? Don’t miss this unique opportunity and fill the application form (application form for Lithuania; application form for Slovakia) by 23 March.
Evaluation
Applications will be evaluated by the Jury made of experienced journalism practitioners, journalism and media experts. In the first round the Jury will evaluate applicants’:
1) Potential to conduct an investigation – professional competences and capacities of Applicants (individuals or teams);
2) Motivation – why they are interested in investigative journalism, providing their motives why this opportunity is important to them, and what added value the participation in the Competition would give them.
For detailed information about the Competition, evaluation criteria, and timeline please refer to the Rules and Regulations document.
Selected candidates will be invited to attend creative workshops, during which they can engage others and find new team members, and will get support from reputable journalism practitioners and experts (mentors) to write the full proposal of the investigation for the Round II of the Competition.
Strong investigation proposal is a green light to the next round. After the evaluation of the submitted proposals, 3 teams will receive a grant for the implementation of their investigations. Awarded investigations will aim to discover and reveal facts or new interpretations of existing facts, expose hidden stories of corruption, human rights, or environment to the public.
| How we can help you find your team members (professional partners): – Send us your topic proposal (one-page document presenting it in a catchy way) and we will forward it to other media with an interest in the same topic or geographical area. – Send us a short video where you present yourself and your idea and we will publish it on our YouTube channel and disseminate it among relevant media. |
Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] . We are looking forward to your applications!
Background
The Media4Change – Future Investigative Story Lab has been established and run by the National Institute for Social Integration (Media4Change programme) from Lithuania and European Dialogue from Slovakia to support cooperation, innovations, professional standards, and ultimately increase quality of content in the field of investigative journalism in Lithuania and Slovakia.
The whole project has been co-funded by the European Commission – DG CONNECT – under the 2019 call for proposals “Media freedom and investigative journalism” (Pilot Project: Supporting investigative journalism and media freedom in the EU).
Disclaimer
This Call for applications represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for the use that may be made of the information contained in this text.
