Deadline: 15-Dec-21
The Pulitzer Center, a nonprofit organization that supports independent global journalism, is now accepting reporting fellowship applications for its Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN). The network is a major initiative that seeks to harness investigative reporting and cross-border collaboration to tackle stories at the intersection of climate change, corruption, and governance in the world’s three main tropical rainforest regions: Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia.
The RIN Fellows will work on individual and collaborative reporting projects to systematically probe the drivers of deforestation across the three main rainforest regions (Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia), from money flows to land-grabbing activities and human rights violations.
The full-time, year-long fellowships will cover the reporter’s salary and provide additional support for the media outlet that employs the journalist (if on staff) or that agrees to host the Fellow (if a freelancer).
Fellows are expected to devote the majority of their time to their rainforest investigations and to publish regularly. They will receive training as well as data, communication, research and coordination support from the Pulitzer Center and will work closely with their co-Fellows around the world, benefiting from one another’s skills and diverse perspectives.
The initiative will also work in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center’s education teams. Fellows will have the support of local education coordinators, who will identify outreach opportunities to share investigation findings at schools and universities.
Benefits for RIN Fellows
- The opportunity to work on impactful investigations that are time-consuming and costly.
- A global network of top-notch investigative reporters who will aid your investigations and complement your skills.
- Access to data and documents as well as the opportunity to sharpen your data skills with support from the Pulitzer Center’s data and research team.
- Specialized training opportunities such as the use of satellite imagery and other digital tools in investigations, corporate and follow-the-money research, and more.
- The opportunity to work on stories that transcend your country and region and can achieve true global impact.
- A community of like-minded colleagues that will continue beyond your fellowship.
- The possibility of renewing your fellowship for additional one or two years based on performance.
- Salaries commensurate with experience.
Eligibility Criteria
- Experienced investigative journalists with a proven track record based in the Amazon (three fellowships), Congo Basin (three fellowships), and Southeast Asia (three fellowships) regions. Additional fellowships will go to journalist working at global media outlets, who can be based outside the rainforest regions.
- Reporters based in countries neighboring the three main tropical rainforest regions—Amazon, Congo Basin and Southeast Asia—may also apply but will need to focus their reporting during the fellowship on deforestation/supply-chain stories related to these regions.
- Staff or freelance journalists working on a wide range of platforms including print, radio, video, and multimedia. Freelance reporters will need to have the support of a local or international newsroom that agrees to host them and publish the work they produce during the fellowship.
- Team players with the experience and/or ability to work collaboratively across newsrooms and borders.
- Reporters with a deep understanding of the scientific, environmental, social, legal, political, and commercial forces at play in deforestation and forest degradation around the world—and why this issue matters to their global well-being.
- Reporters willing to participate in outreach activities related to their investigations, such as events at schools and universities.
For more information, visit https://pulitzercenter.org/grants-fellowships/opportunities-journalists-and-campus-consortium-members/apply-join