2021-08-10
LONDON/BRUSSELS - Journalismfund.eu announces today the creation of The Earth Investigations Programme. The new grants programme, established with a gift of 11.5 million euros over six years from Arcadia, will support environmental investigative journalism on European affairs in and outside Europe.
This programme, which sets a precedent in the philanthropic and in the non-profit journalism worlds because of its size and length of operation, will support teams of journalists with an interest in researching the environmental aspects of the stories they investigate.
Investigative journalism exposes injustices, creates pressure on those in power and mobilizes action. Yet, while news media and newsrooms still often operate nationally, most power structures and societal and environmental problems transcend national boundaries. This is why Journalismfund.eu is launching this as an initiative that will foster cross-border investigative cooperation, providing several types of grants and enabling activities (Earth Services) to support journalists, newsrooms and journalistic organisations.
We hope that The Earth Investigations Programme will help bring abuses of nature to light, ensuring that decision-makers prioritize the health of nature and communities.
Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, co-founders of Arcadia: "Investigative journalism helps hold the powerful to account. But many investigations neglect environmental aspects. We hope that The Earth Investigations Programme will help bring abuses of nature to light, ensuring that decision-makers prioritize the health of nature and communities. We are delighted to partner with Journalismfund.eu, and look forward to seeing the new programme and its grantees flourish."
Ides Debruyne, managing-director of Journalismfund.eu: “Journalismfund.eu is very much looking forward to delivering this new, inspiring and extremely necessary initiative. We are convinced that this programme will benefit both citizens and the environment. We see it as key step towards more substantial funding for investigative journalism. Hopefully this will help inspire other private and public donors to begin supporting, or increase their support for, investigative journalism, which remains chronically underfunded in Europe."
Be the first to get informed about the criteria and details. Follow us on social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram) or subscribe to our newsletter. More news soon.
Arcadia is a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. It supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural heritage and the environment. Arcadia also supports projects that promote open access and all of its awards are granted on the condition that any materials produced are made available for free online. Since 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $777 million to projects around the world.
More info: www.arcadiafund.org.uk
Journalismfund.eu vzw is a Brussels-based independent non‐profit organisation founded by citizens in 1998. It is dedicated to advancing independent cross-border investigative journalism in order to promote democracy across Europe and beyond.
Journalismfund.eu is an intermediary and firewall between donors and journalists. This intermediary role is essential to enable donors to finance investigative journalism without affecting the credibility and independence of the journalists. Ultimately, Journalismfund.eu only works in the interest of the general public, by enabling a well-informed debate as a condition for citizens to shape a democratic society.
You can read more about the funding of Journalismfund.eu here.
