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[Closed] Call for Media Hubs from selected European countries

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.


About the Call

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.

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.

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.

Regional media hubs will receive direct financial support to be able to perform their activities as ambassadors and regional centres of collaborative and investigative journalism.


Practical Information

  • 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.

  • You can find more details about the eligibility criteria, application and selection process in this Call for Applications document


About the Project

This call is part of the “Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative” (CIJI: ciji.info), which aims to equip independent media outlets and individual journalists with resources, innovative networking infrastructure and standards-based methods that enable them to practice high-quality, ethical and accountable collaborative and investigative journalism. It aims at providing enabling environments for individual journalists and existing news media outlets to excel, and for start-ups to emerge and succeed.

CIJI is carried out in partnership by Free Press Unlimited (FPU), jointly with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Tactical Tech (TT) and aims to become a network-based initiative that promotes ethical standards, offers training and capacity building opportunities and a fora for collaboration and peer-support. CIJI will offer a collaborative environment across borders and serve as a single access point to a variety of tools and resources.