“Diversifying Voices in Journalism” Media Grants – Kosovo

In January 2023, they started implementing “Diversifying voices in journalism,” a project funded by the European Union that seeks to promote media pluralism in Kosovo, counter disinformation and build the capacity of media outlets, the youth and young journalists to produce journalistic content that adheres to the highest professional standards.

Through this call in particular, they wish to provide small-scale funding and training to media outlets and related organizations to help them realize their own innovative, high-quality media projects. This is to make sure that funding and skills can reach a diverse audience of media outlets and media-producing organizations that find it hard to directly access EU funding, or that still need to grow their journalistic skills or organizational capacity. At K2.0, they believe that media pluralism and journalistic quality are essential for the health of Kosovo’s democracy.

The overall objective is to support quality, public interest journalism, and the understanding and trust of journalism professionals, the media and the public towards independent journalism and its irreplaceable democratic function.

In addition to supporting a diverse range of underrepresented, high-quality journalistic productions, the goal is to empower selected participants in securing and efficiently managing donor-based projects. This is achieved through a combination of training and practical experience. K2.0 will accompany media grantees throughout the project implementation, guiding them to achieve the highest standards in project management, human resources, reporting, finance and administration. The ultimate objective is to equip media grantees with the skills needed to access and successfully manage future and larger grants, thereby enhancing their financial sustainability.

Funding Information

• Within this round, up to 6 applicants or consortia of applicants will be awarded a grant. Each winning project can receive up to 11,000.00 EUR in funding under this call. It is crucial to understand that the grants provided are project-based, not institutional or core grants. This means that if your project is selected, its success will be evaluated solely based on the targets and specifications outlined in your proposal.

What kind of training you can expect to receive?

• The purpose of this call is to provide winning applicants with both the funds and skills to complete their own innovative media projects. If you are selected, you will take part in a small-scale training program organized by K2.0.
• The training program is based on the decade-long experience in independent, award-winning multimedia journalism. They want to take the time to share with the colleagues the skills and resources they have developed throughout the years, so that you can deepen your knowledge and passion for high-quality, innovative and public oriented journalism.
• You will participate in four training workshops, focusing on:
  • Functioning and role of independent media, including audience engagement,
  • Watchdogging and human rights-sensitive reporting,
  • Financial management,
  • Project management and visibility.
• The workshops are set to take place, indicatively, in June 2024. All winning applicants must attend the training, ensuring the participation of at least one relevant staff member in each workshop.

Eligible Activities

• Eligible activities under this call are journalistic productions, such as: written articles, multimedia productions, podcast productions, video productions, documentary productions, radio shows, TV shows, animations and other innovative media productions.
• Therefore, it is important to note that activities such as discussions, conferences, etc. are not eligible under this call. However, non-journalistic activities may be considered eligible if they can be demonstrated as necessary for the realization of journalistic productions. For instance, workshops involving the public in participatory journalism or training sessions for young journalists to produce editorial content could be eligible under this category, provided that journalistic productions constitute the largest share of the proposed activities
• To be eligible, projects need to be realized in a period of up to twelve months.
• Furthermore, applicants need to show how their project has the potential to effectively reach the public (either the general public or well-identified categories of citizens), with the public dimension of this call being of vital importance.
• For this reason, project outputs must be disseminated online, namely, in the web or social media platforms of winning media/NGOs or in the platforms of partner media, when applicable. To ensure public outreach, applicants that are not a media outlet should foresee partnerships with media outlets for the dissemination of project results.

Eligibility Criteria

• The main targets of this call are socially-engaged media outlets and media-producing organizations, with a particular attention to grassroots organizations and collectives engaging in innovative forms of multimedia production. To be eligible, applicants must be:
  • media organizations or organizations with demonstrated capacity, reason or experience in producing media content,
  • based and operating in Kosovo,
  • registered as an NGO or private media entity.
• Unregistered initiatives can apply, provided that a registered NGO or private media operates as a fiscal sponsor. This implies a registered, eligible entity assuming all legal and financial responsibilities under the purposes of this call in the name of an unregistered initiative, who will be responsible for the implementation of the project.
• Only private media entities that are small in size are eligible for funding. For the purpose of this call, a small media entity is one with up to 15 in-house employees.
• Applicants can apply in consortiums of up to three different entities (including fiscal sponsors).
• Once awarded a grant, a specific entity may not re-apply or receive additional funding under this activity.
• With the media grants, they want to prioritize entities that have high potential, but are normally excluded from funding in this area. This means that if your organization, media or collective is young, or located outside of Prishtina, or your work is grassroots and community-driven, you are highly encouraged to apply.

For more information, visit Kosovo 2.0.