CFPs: Expanding Production of Independent Content Project (Hungary)

The EPIC project aims to assist in the production and dissemination of high-quality, credible, engaging, and innovative fact-based multimedia content across platforms that addresses issues of importance to communities across Hungary.

Media organizations, independent journalists, and content creators with digital operations in Hungary for more than one year may apply with specific ideas for a series of stories or media project.

Themes and Topics

• Internews is looking for media projects and series of stories that cover nationwide and local issues in Hungary. They welcome projects that cover stories outside of Budapest. Local stories will be considered if the theme, topic, or subject is also relevant to audiences outside of the specific region.
• Media projects and stories should speak to a wide range of audiences or address issues of interest to communities and audience groups that are underserved. Such groups include, but are not limited to young people, smaller communities, minorities, and people not regularly reached by a wider range of independent media outlets practicing credible, fact-based reporting.
• Stories for and/or about niche audiences (such as minorities) should prominently feature or speak with the voice of that the specific audience.
• Individual pieces within a project/series should ideally be linked by both a common theme and a common format, but projects united by only a common format or theme will be considered if they are sufficiently innovative and have the potential to fill an important gap in information (for example explainers that cover a wider range of issues).
• Applicants are free to choose the themes and topics of the pieces produced as part of the project, but they must meet the audiences’ needs and address key current issues affecting them in a relevant and informative manner, with a focus on how they reflect on the human experience, especially where there is an important gap in information. Possible such topics and themes include, but are not limited to:
  • everyday life, stories about livelihoods, food security, work, jobs, wages, living expenses and inflations (and their effect on the everyday life of people and communities),
  • corruption, including its trickle-down effect in people’s day-to-day lives,
  • environmental issues, including how the climate crisis affects life and the economy across Hungary,
  • social issues, ranging from how the welfare system functions to individual human interest stories that speak to the wider issue,
  • women, the challenges they face in society, families, relationships, the workplace,
  • the education system, including providing a big picture view of the system, the role of different stakeholders, any systemic risks,
  • the health sector, including the role of private and public health care, their functioning, and systemic relation to each other,
  • local, but universal stories of how people live, overcome difficulties, how small communities interact with each other and their relationships,
  • the agricultural sector, including the bigger picture and the lives of people working in it,
  • currently trending topics where there is a lack of policy debate before decisions are taken, including formats that enable/encourage real policy debates on local issues or cover the lack of transparency over such decisions,
  • the effects of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine on the lives of people in Hungary, the lives of refugees living in Hungary, the roles of different actors, and the war’s effect on any of the above-mentioned areas,
  • Further topics, such as LGBTQ+, the role of the EU in various aspects of life in Hungary, migration, historical misrepresentations, and other areas.

Funding Information

• Selected applicants will receive financial support in the form of cost-reimbursable subgrants to produce relevant content. Internews anticipates awarding four (4) grants, each up to USD $10,000 per applicant.
• Selected applicants will be reimbursed for costs incurred as part of content creation: production costs, such as travel and accommodation costs, fees of contractors (for example web developers) needed for certain aspects of production, office rent and salaries of staff involved in producing the content both based on level of effort, running costs based on the level of effort, equipment not yet available but needed to produce the content (under USD 5,000) and other reasonable expenses expressly related to the production specific media project/series. Capital expenditures, servicing of loans, construction activities will not be considered for award.
• Additional funding of up to USD $1,000 can be available for content marketing to increase the reach and impact of content produced in the project (to be included in the budget).
• Grant payments will be made based on a quarterly needs-basis. The initial payment will be made following the signature of a subgrant agreement as an advance based on the partner’s projected expenses for the following 3 months. Payments afterwards will be made based on actual reported expenditure and projected expenses.
• Once grant agreements are signed, successful applicants will have up to six months, foreseeably between May 1, 2024 and October 31, 2024 to produce, publish and promote the pieces of their media projects/series. No more than two months should elapse between two pieces.

What are they looking for?

• They want to support series that are both innovative in their approach to the topics and their point of view, as well as in the use of (audio)visual storytelling tools, and thus are able to reach a wide audience.
• The series should deal with one (or several interrelated) stories about topics of public interest in Hungary and the human stories that reflect them. Multimedia content can include photography, video, animation, subtitled video, various infographics (from graphs to maps to innovative data visualizations), graphics, drawings, audio clips, interactivity or even a game.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must meet the following criteria to be considered eligible for a subaward resulting from this Request for Applications:
  • In the case of media outlets, the publishing organization is legally registered in Hungary, in the case of independent journalists and content creators, they have a registered business entity in Hungary, e.g. as a private entrepreneur.
  • The applicant is active in the Hungarian online media market as a content producer for more than 1 year,
  • The applicant regularly publishes Hungarian language media content that specifically targets a national, local or regional audience,
  • The applicant follows an independent editorial policy and has a proven dedication to professional journalistic standards and ethics.
  • The applicant has a demonstrated record of producing clear, unbiased, pluralistic content about issues of public interest,
  • The applicant publicly self-identifies as an independent organization or journalist,
  • The organization publishing this media outlet is not owned or managed by public authorities, local or national governments, political parties, by individuals holding public office or office in political organizations, or their close relatives,
  • The applicant is in good standing regarding any previous Internews grants.

For more information, visit Internews.