This regional project implemented across Western Balkans is delivered by a consortium led by the British Council in partnership with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), Thomson Foundation and INTRAC (The International NGO Training and Research Centre), and is funded by the UK Government through the British Embassy in Serbia.
Engaged Citizens Reporting Call aims to support local and regional independent media outlets in Serbia to become more audience oriented by strengthening their relationship with their audience using the platform for citizens reporting.
Grant recipients will be provided with a tool developed by the Project to engage with their audiences and enable citizens to suggest topics, provide testimonials, documents and evidence with the aim to help media outlets involve their audience in story production, long before it is published.
Grant recipients will be trained on how to use the platform and will be provided with editorial support and mentoring during project implementation on content production and promotion.
Grant funds for content production requested under this Call must fall between 7,500 GBP and 15,000 GBP.
Duration of the project is set to nine months in total, including the implementation of the ECR tool to the grantees’ websites and training on ECR.
The application forms and documents for the Engaged Citizen Reporting Call are available for download at the bottom of this page.
Eligibility: Only media outlets registered in Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) are eligible to apply. Media outlet, or legal entity owning the media outlet, must be registered in Serbia before 1 January 2018.
Selection: In addition to quality of proposal and capacity of applicant to implement it, the selection process will take into consideration demonstrated commitment of the media outlet to adhere to the Law and uphold journalistic standards. Decisions of Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council and Press Council’s Complaints Commission, as well as adjudicated court cases – particularly in regard of hate speech, discrimination, rights of minors and minorities, invasion of privacy, and presumption of innocence – will be considered.
The Project encourages media operating in remote geographic areas, coming from underserved communities, and/or established or managed by underrepresented groups (minority, youth and other) to apply.
The project is also announcing another call for the Business Development (BD) Grants. Media outlets may apply to one or both of the Calls depending on their needs and level of capacity to implement the activities simultaneously.
Important information:
Applications must be completed in English language.
Deadline for applications is 19 July 2020 at 24.00.
Time and date of the online information sessions will be announced in due time.
UPDATE: Online information session is scheduled for Thursday, 9 July at 14:00. More information.