Grants to support Public Interest Journalism in Palestine

At a time when local journalism in Palestine has been decimated — more than one hundred journalists and media professionals have been killed in the war in Gaza since October 2023 — the need to protect public interest journalism has never been more acute. With dozens of journalists injured and a large number of news organisations on the verge of closure, this support will provide a lifeline to Palestine’s media sector – and the public that relies on it for reliable information and reporting.

To achieve its objectives the project will:

• Develop specific criteria in consultation with local stakeholders and international media development experts to evaluate valid applications.
• Create a panel of independent media and developments professionals with a long experience of working in Palestine to evaluate shortlisted applications.
• Allocate the funding to selected applicants, which demonstrate a clear commitment to transparency, ethical journalism, legal compliance, and provide fair working conditions for their staff.
• Conduct exhaustive due diligence checks before grant transfers are finalized.

Funding Information

• The International Federation of Journalists is offering a number of grants totaling almost 1.000.000 USD to support and enhance public interest media content created by Palestinian media organisations.
• They expect grants for national media to likely be in the range of 50-75.000 USD and constitute no more than 30% of turnover. Grants will be capped at 75.000 USD for national media and 40.000 USD for local media to enable the fund to support a broad range of media across all regions and platforms.
• Up to 20 individual grants will be awarded to a diverse range of private local and national outlets in Palestine to help pay the salaries of journalists, and sustain and promote the production of public interest reporting.
• Duration: 12 months

Eligibility Criteria

• Valid applications will be shortlisted based on being scored against specific criteria developed by local stakeholders and representative Palestinian media organisations. The criteria are:
  • Applicants must be a registered media organisation operating in Palestine.
  • Applicants should demonstrate a strong commitment to producing original content.
  • Applicants must demonstrate a commitment to public interest content but that content may cover a range of public interest issues such as news, current affairs, community issues.
  • Applicants must demonstrate that they respect, at the very least, decent work and standards of employment conditions. Staff should have work contracts and applicants should be able to prove staff are paid above the national minimum wage.
  • Applicants must demonstrate a commitment to media ethics as set out in the IFJ Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists.
• The commercial policies of applicants (e.g., free content, paywalls) do not affect its ability to apply for a grant. The target audience of the media (local Arabic audience or mixed audience including English and Hebrew) does not affect its ability to apply for the grant.
• Shortlisted applications will be considered by a panel of media development experts with a long experience of working in Palestine.

For more information, visit International Federation of Journalists.