This grant initiative aims to facilitate impartial journalistic investigations into Asian victims of human trafficking and forced labor in Europe.
Professional journalists from across the border can apply for a grant to cover working time and/or expenses to research, document, and uncover elements and situations of forced labor, cross-continental trafficking, and other concerns related to the exploitation of Asian victims in Europe.
Other than the grant to a grant, teams can apply for a mentor to help them with the investigation's focus or the requirement for specific skill competencies.
Unveiling modern slavery
Journalismfund.eu hopes to encourage collaborations to chronicle this occurrence and distribute the findings to the broader public through this program. As a result, it helps to enable educated discourse among individuals and policymakers, which is a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.
The Modern Slavery Unveiled project includes a training program for investigative reporters and civil society organizations and a grant and mentoring program.
Journalismfund.eu will cooperate with several partners to implement this project, including the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). Porticus is a sponsor of the project.
Who is the grant for?
The program is open to groups of professional journalists from Asia and/or Europe.
Members of teams from other continents are also welcome to apply, as long as the study focuses on how Asian forced labor victims are abused in Europe.
What does the grant cover?
Throughout four application rounds, the Modern Slavery Unveiled funding program will distribute €320,000.
The total budget available for distribution per call is €80,000. Porticus is a sponsor of the program.
How to apply?
1. Please read the grant specifics before beginning, as they contain the rules, eligibility, evaluation criteria, and timing information. (https://bit.ly/3uqCCQl)
2. You can access our online application form after completing a one-time registration with your email address. (https://grants.journalismfund.eu/en/register/modernslavery) You can freely traverse the form to choose which information you must submit in your application. This includes the following:
- personal information about team members, information about the planned inquiry, information about how your story will be distributed
- a comprehensive budget
- The following papers will be required to be uploaded:
- a copy of the applicant's passport CV letters of intent from reputable news organizations
- a comprehensive budget (https://bit.ly/35aMiGg)
One team member can start a draft application. Applicants can then invite others to work on the online draft with them. The work-in-progress online application can be saved and changed at any time.
Eligibility criteria
- A proposal for a journalistic inquiry can be submitted by cross-border teams comprising at least two journalists.
- Professional journalists are required to apply (written or audio-visual press). In this regard, personal recommendations and/or references to previous work are critical.
- Natural persons can only apply for a grant.
- The project proposal must focus on a specific feature or case of Asian human trafficking and/or forced labor victims in Europe.
- A minimum of two professional news outlets in at least two separate countries must publish the project. Two or more professional publishing houses must submit their letters of intent to post the given assignments.
- Investigative journalism published in any professional media format, including print, web, broadcast, and cross-media, is eligible. Newspaper and magazine articles, photo reportages and books, radio and TV documentaries and series, podcasts, and journalistic non-fiction books are all eligible for a grant.
What are the costs?
A grant can be used to pay for two categories of research expenses:
- Charges (both for freelance journalists and for employed staff journalists).
Travel, visas, lodging, translation, FOI requests, legal screening, fixers, access to paid databases, and similar are examples of these.
Investment items (IT equipment, mobile phones, etc. ), office expenditures, production costs, food and beverage, and per diems are not eligible for a grant.
- Research (only for freelance journalists).
The money can only be used to support research expenditures, not manufacturing costs.
Applications must provide a budget calculation according to the budget template provided above.
Mentors
- Successful applicants who require assistance with a particular investigation component might ask for a mentor. Journalismfund.eu selects a mentor from its pool of mentors (including seasoned investigative journalists from several continents) in conjunction with the team.
- Mentors are chosen based on the investigation's emphasis or the need for competency in a given area. They can help with cross-border collaboration, source identification, research methodologies, storytelling, marketing, project management, etc.
- A mentor can provide guidance and knowledge and serve as a sounding board. They do not cooperate fully with the investigation. A project can allow up to five mentorship days.
- Journalismfund.eu compensates the mentor. The mentor is not required to be included in the application proposal.
Jury
- An independent jury of investigative journalism experts from Europe and Asia evaluates the applications. Journalismfund.eu selects the jury members. Until these individuals leave the jury, they stay unidentified.
- Before, during, and after the review of the proposals, both Journalismfund.eu and the jury are obliged by absolute confidentiality.
- Journalismfund binds jury members.eu's strict conflict of interest policy (see (https://bit.ly/3JFcJml)), which guarantees the highest standards of ethical conduct and decision-making independence and objectivity.
Criteria
The jury will evaluate the applications using the following criteria:
- In comparison to mainstream coverage, relevance for the thematic topic of this program, namely the abuse of human trafficking of Asian victims and/or forced labor in Europe, added value.
- Quality of research methodology and presentation/storytelling practicality of the inquiry, timeframe, and budget cross-border or cross-continental aspect
- The candidates' work effort requires pooling research ability and information and acting as a watchdog over institutions, policies, and money.
Finally, the panel will consider the diversity of the projects that have been granted funding. This entails a wide range of regional variability (both regarding stories and team members)
- issues, approaches, and methods
- formats for publishing
- the composition of the team
Grant conditions
- The grantees and all other project participants must agree to the principles of the Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists and any applicable national codes of ethics. (see https://bit.ly/358jLB3)
- Every grantee executes a contract with Journalismfund.eu outlining the terms and circumstances of the partnership.
- Grants are awarded in two installments: the first (2/3) when the Agreement is signed and the second (1/3) when the project is published, and the supporting paperwork for the expenses are submitted.
- Grants are given out in euros. They are exclusively paid into grantees' bank accounts, not through other money transfer methods. Journalismfund.eu bears all bank charges for overseas payments except for currency rates.
- Any journalistic product created due to a Journalismfund.eu-supported initiative must expressly state that it was made possible by Journalismfund.eu.
- Applicants must agree to the general grant rules of Journalismfund.eu. (For further information, go to (https://bit.ly/3JxsxHT)
For further information, please click the "LINK TO ORIGINAL" button below.