Hamburg,
31 March 2020
Independent public interest journalism is essential for democracies. It helps people to form their opinion and participate in democratic processes. In addition, this form of journalism has a monitoring function and detects abuses of power. In order to strengthen independent public interest journalism in Europe, the Rudolf Augstein Foundation participates in a fund initiated by Civitates.
As a matter of fact, independent journalism is under increasing pressure. Throughout Europe, journalistic organisations struggle with a loss of confidence, with restrictions in press freedom and with eroding business models. For this reason, European foundations have joined forces under the umbrella of the philanthropic initiative Civitates and aim to strengthen journalistic organisations.
The request for proposals is now open. The call mainly addresses organisations that operate under difficult political and economic conditions. They must either be a non-profit organisation or work with a profit model that reinvests all profit back to the organisation.
The project partners receive a multi-year core funding which allows them to work independently and to establish sustainable structures. The aim is also to connect the grantee partners to learn from each other and to collaboratively strengthen public interest journalism in Europe.
The application round ends on 30 June 2020. Further information and the online application form can be found here.