Deadline: 2-Feb-22
The Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is offering reporting grants to Indigenous journalists to support the production of in-depth stories that will call attention to climate justice, biodiversity, sustainable ecosystems, Indigenous leadership and other issues related to the rights and well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities.
Through funding offered by the Nia Tero Foundation and the Svenska Postkodstiftelsen (The Swedish Postcode Lottery), EJN is providing 20 grants to Indigenous journalists looking to investigate and produce stories about environmental degradation in Indigenous communities as well as explore strategies for adaptation, resilience and advocacy.
Story Themes
- EJN welcomes any story ideas that will explore how environmental and climate change issues are linked to the rights and well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities. They are particularly interested in stories that explore environmental solutions and resiliency, focus on resource use, agriculture and traditional management practices, investigate land rights and environmental sovereignty, address the role of Indigenous Peoples as guardians of the environment or highlight the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Indigenous land and communities.
- Proposals that focus on topics or stories that have not been widely covered are preferred. Issues that have already received a lot of media coverage or don’t provide unique angles to environmental challenges are less likely to be selected.
Funding Information
EJN expects to award 20 grants in total, at two funding levels: 10 grants will be awarded with an average budget of $1,450, and another 10 grants will be awarded with an average budget of $1,250. Generally speaking, applications with smaller budgets will be more competitive, but they will consider larger grant amounts for stories using innovative or investigative approaches that may be more costly and time-consuming.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must self-identify as Indigenous and will be asked to provide details on their Indigenous affiliations in the application. Applicants can be from any country in the world.
- Journalists who are not Indigenous are not eligible for this opportunity; however, they will accept applications from groups of Indigenous and non-Indigenous journalists. In these cases, the Indigenous journalist must be the lead applicant. Lead applicants are responsible for communicating with EJN and receiving funds on the group’s behalf, if awarded.
- For the purposes of this grant opportunity, they will only be accepting applications in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Unfortunately, they do not have the capacity to consider applications in other languages at this time. Applicants must either have a working understanding of English or have a translator available to assist with communication with Internews staff.
- Applications are open to journalists working in any medium (online, print, television, radio) and other expert media practitioners with investigative reporting experience and a history of covering environmental issues. They encourage applications from freelance reporters and staff from all types of media organizations – international, national, local and community-based.
Judging Criteria
Applicants should consider the following points when devising their story proposals.
- Relevance: Does the proposal meet the criteria and objectives of the call? Why does this story matter and to whom? Is the main idea, context and overall value to the target audience clearly defined?
- Angle: If the story has been covered, does your proposal bring new insights to the topic or offer a fresh angle?
- Impact: Does the proposal have a compelling narrative or investigative element that will inform and engage, draw attention, trigger debate and urge action?
- Innovative storytelling: The use of creative approaches, multimedia and data visualisation will be considered a plus.
For more information, visit https://earthjournalism.net/opportunities/indigenous-environmental-journalism-story-grants-2022