Out of 41 applicants, including institutions, organizations and individuals, 16 were selected as beneficiaries of BIRN’s Medium and Small Grant Scheme, which is funded by the European Union.
Through the project, “Support to Civil Society and Media Initiatives”, BIRN and its partners aim to assist individuals and organizations in the media sector in their efforts to improve transparency, independence and accountability in Kosovo within the sector itself and in Kosovo broadly.
This grant scheme is designed to “Contribute to strengthening independent, investigative and publicly beneficial journalism and freedom of expression in Kosovo,” and will provide 14 applicants with small grants of 5,000 euros or less, and two applicants with medium grants, which range from 20,000 to 30,000 euros.
The total amount spent on the grant scheme is 121,267 euros.
The grantees were selected by a professional jury, which met for the first time on June 18 to evaluate the 41 applicants. Their decision was based upon the relevance of the proposed actions and activities, creativity, quality of the financial offer, the project team’s potential and previous experience of the applicant.
The jury met again on June 21 to discuss a shortlist of applicants and compiled the final list of beneficiaries after reviewing the first evaluation. The objective for the selected applicants will be to contribute to the strengthening and development of investigative journalism and freedom of expression, increasing the skills of media professionals in monitoring, fact-checking and accountability across Kosovo for the public benefit. The selected proposals provide a variety of activities including capacity building, investigative reporting, production of documentaries, usage of public documents and address issues related to freedom of expression and fake news.
14 applicants from the selected list were awarded grants from Lot 1, Supporting document-based reporting on themes related to good governance, education, healthcare, economy and human rights and encourage access to public documents, and two of the selected applicants were awarded grants from Lot 2, Improving internal governance of the PCK and/or its members organizations in respecting labor laws, respecting copyright and applying best standards of media legislation & improving legal assistance to the media & improving the legal protection for whistleblowers.
All applicants received individual replies about their application, which also included an evaluation form with points and comments from the jury.
Below is the full list of the successful applicants of the Call for Proposals for the Medium and Small Grant Scheme package to “Contribute to strengthening independent, investigative and publicly beneficial journalism and freedom of expression in Kosovo” project.
BIRN dodeljuje novčana sredstva za 16 kandidata u okviru EU programa
Šesnaest od četrdeset jednog prijavljenog kandidata, uključujući institucije, organizacije i pojedince, dobiće novčana sredstva u okviru programa malih i srednjih subvencija koje dodeljuje BIRN Kosovo, a finansijski podržava Evropska unija. Projektom „Doprinos jačanju nezavisnog, istraživačkog i novinarstva u interesu javnosti, kao i slobode izražavanja na Kosovu“, BIRN i partneri imaju za cilj da pomognu pojedincima i organizacijama u medijskom sektoru u njihovim naporima na poboljšanju transparentnosti, nezavisnosti i odgovornosti, kako u okviru samog sektora, tako i na Kosovu uopšte.
Ovi grantovi deo su projekta „Doprinos jačanju nezavisnog, istraživačkog i javno korisnog novinarstva i slobode izražavanja na Kosovu.” Četrnaest kandidata dobiće subvencije do pet hiljada evra, a dva sredstva u rasponu od dvadeset do trideset hiljada evra.
Ukupan iznos odobrenih sredstava iznosi 121.267 evra.
Dobitnike grantova odabrao je žiri koji se sastao prvi put 18. juna kako bi ocenio sve projekte, a ocenjivani su značaj predloženih aktivnosti, kreativnost, finansijski okvir i potencijal projektnog tima, kao i prethodna iskustava kandidata. Žiri se zatim sastao 21. juna kako bi porazgovarao o užem krugu kandidata i sastavio konačan spisak dobitnika finansijske podrške. Izabrani kandidati daće doprinos jačanju i razvoju istraživačkog novinarstva i slobode izražavanja, usavršavajući veštine medijskih profesionalaca u monitoringu, proveri činjenica i odgovornosti na čitavom Kosovu, u interesu svih građana. Izabrani predlozi uključuju raznolike aktivnosti, među kojima su izgradnja kapaciteta, istraživačko novinarstvo, produkciju dokumentarnih emisija, korišćenje javnih dokumenata, kao i bavljenje pitanjima slobode izražavanja i lažnih vesti.
Četrnaest kandidata dobilo je subvencije iz Lot 1: Podrška izveštavanju o dobroj upravi, obrazovanju, zdravstvenoj zaštiti, privredi i ljudskim pravima i podsticanje pristupa javnim dokumentima, a dva subvencije iz Lot 2: Unapređenje unutrašnjeg upravljanja PCK (Pravni centar Kosova) i/ili njegovih organizacija članica u poštovanju zakona o radu, poštovanju autorskog prava i primeni najboljih standarda sadržanih u medijskim propisima ii poboljšanje pravne pomoći pružene medijima, kao i poboljšanje pravne zaštite uzbunjivača.
Svi kandidati su dobili individualne odgovore o uspehu njihove prijave, uz obrazac procene i poene i komentare žirija.
U nastavku sledi potpun spisak odabranih kandidata.