“STIMULUS FOR INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
ACROSS THE REGIONS OF UKRAINE”

Eastern Europe Studies Center (Vilnius), National Union of Journalist of Ukraine and Lithuanian Union of Journalists invite Ukrainian local journalists to take part in the project “Stimulus for independent journalism across the regions of Ukraine”. Ten selected participants will take a part in a series of trainings from Ukrainian and Lithuanian media trainers and receive financial and mentoring support to create investigative and analytical materials with a focus on local topics.

Project duration – 8 months.

Maximum amount of funding for the creation of material (materials) – 2500 euros per participant¹.

We are looking for journalists, who:

• Have interest in the preparation of analytical material or to conduct an investigation (for more see the list of topics) or are in the process of their job on these materials and need support for on-going work;

or

• Have an interest in pursuing or are already pursuing a story aligning with the topics of the project (see below);

or

• Have experience in covering social conflicts and local problems;

or

• Cover the consequences of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, the lives of residents of frontline areas, migrants, etc.

All candidates should:

• Have the ability to conduct an extensive investigative journalistic research or a series of analytical materials with a focus on priority topics (for 8 months);
• Have experience in investigative / analytical journalism from 3 years or more;
• Be financially and politically independent (from state, politically, or big business funded outlets);
• Be not politically biased and has no political interests or affiliations;
• Be not public-relations focused.
• Work at regional-local media (full-time or part-time). Freelancers, bloggers and anyone who run other non-traditional media channels on a regular basis are also invited to participate.

We offer:

• A cooperative project involving 10 representatives from the regional media in Ukraine;
• External expertise of the Lithuanian Union of Journalists;
• Support from the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine;
• Two training sessions for capacity and partnership building including on the issues and ways of investigative work, legal support as well as sustainability of investigative journalism and critical media in changing media landscape;
• Small individual grants for execution of the proposal (2500 EUR).

Topics for journalistic research project:

We expect participants to be proactive in highlighting issues that are important to their audiences. The materials created within the project should contribute either to: grasping principles behind sensitive problems solving, or that would facilitate dialogue-building and promoting mutual respect and understanding.

Priority will be given to the following topics:

• Social justice, protection of human rights;
• Life of those affected by war: population nearby the war zone, veterans and their families, volunteers;
• Integration of internally displaced people;
• Issues of Ukrainian migrants to neighborhood countries;
• EU support for Ukraine/humanitarian aid;
• Corruption;
• Armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and its consequences for society (social and political conflicts);
• Changes in the regions and in the relationship between the region and the “center” after decentralization in Ukraine;
• State, challenges and transformations of local media;
• Other topics related to urgency of democratization/topics of high resonance in the regions.

Eligibility criteria:

• Presence of relevant (media or journalism) work experience;
• Regional/local scope of work;
• Experience in investigative or analytic journalism;
• Relevance of the proposed concept;
• An innovative investigative or publishing approach;
• Capacity to show that the material created during the project will have significant coverage and impact at the local level;
• Cooperation with CSOs, other media, regions is an asset;
• Ability to use diverse and multiple platforms for interim/final project results is an asset;

In selecting the participants, we will assess the relevance of the suggested project to the list of topics, its relevance for Ukraine/region, whether it contributes to bettering of the public discourse and/or understanding of certain local/regional issues and how it fits with the scope of work and field of interest of the person applying. The candidate’s ability to implement the stated idea will also be assessed (for 8 months). The project it-self should either be focused on one big research, or outline a series of articles/interviews united by one theme.

Terms of application:

Step 1: Prepare preliminary information for the application.

1. Motivation letter (up to 250 words).
2. Links to 5 last done pieces. *If the materials are not published on the Internet, you should download them to the cloud service without limiting the period of access and send us this link.
3. Links to 3 stories focusing on the topic you want to explore (if available).
4. For freelancers: when filling out the questionnaire, indicate the media you are currently working with. If the application is approved, you will have to provide the organizers with a letter from the editorial office about the readiness to publish your materials created within the framework of this project.

Step 2: Fill out the registration form.

Deadlines:

Submit documents by 23.59 on June 10, 2021.