Today Journalismfund.eu launches ‘Modern Slavery Unveiled’, a project to provide critical resources and know-how to journalists to investigate exploitation of Asian victims of human trafficking and forced labour in Europe.
The project comprises of a grant programme for investigative journalists, a mentor programme for grantees, and a training programme for journalists and civil society organisations.
Grant programme: cross-border teams of professional journalists can apply for a grant to cover working time and/or expenses to document and expose aspects and cases of forced labour, cross-continental trafficking and other issues related to the exploitation of Asian victims in Europe.
Mentor programme: next to a grant, teams can also apply for a mentor to provide assistance with either the focus of the investigation or the need for competences in a specific skill.
Training programme: in a next stage Journalismfund.eu will also deploy a training programme for journalists and civil society organisations. Training topics will include security, knowledge on human trafficking, project management, cross-border investigations, and dissemination and impact maximisation.
Unveiling modern slavery
40 million people are estimated to be trapped in modern slavery worldwide. Modern slavery can take various forms of exploitation, including human trafficking, forced labour, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, debt bondage, etc.
Although it is widespread, modern slavery is often hidden. "The human trafficking story is one of the most challenging, complex and ethically testing assignments for journalists and editors", Aidan White writes in Hidden from view: Reporting on human trafficking and modern slavery, which was published this week by the Thomson Foundation.
With this programme Journalismfund.eu therefore wants to stimulate collaborations to document this phenomenon and disseminate the investigation results to the general public.
In that manner it contributes to the enabling of a well-informed debate by citizens and policy makers, which is a precondition for a healthy democracy.
For the deployment of the Modern Slavery Unveiled project Journalismfund.eu will collaborate with several partners, in particular with the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). The project is supported by Porticus.
Journalismfund.eu has run and is still operating similar targeted programmes, about e.g. tax avoidance and illicit financial flows, science journalism and cross-border local journalism. These programmes are complementary to Journalismfund.eu’s general European Cross-border Grants programme.
First application deadline 18 March
The first deadline for project applications is Thursday 18 March 2021, 12 pm CET. In the first round there is €80,000 available to allocate to the most interesting project proposals.
The Modern Slavery Unveiled project will have four application rounds in total. The average interval between project calls will be six months.
Interested in applying?
To apply or to learn more about the eligibility and assessment criteria, timing, jury and grant conditions, visit our brand-new application platform.
About Journalismfund.eu
Journalismfund.eu is an independent non-profit organisation founded in 1998 by citizens. Its mission is to facilitate independent investigative cross-border journalism by connecting donors and journalists. In that way it aims to promote and enhance democracy in Europe. Since 1998 it has supported more than 1,100 journalistic investigations and nearly 2,000 journalists.