The Baltic Independent Media Programme seeks to strengthen media outlets’ current offering and help them expand into new areas of activity.

Editorially independent media organisations acting in the public interest are vital to democratic processes. They hold power to account and ensure that citizens can make informed decisions about the issues that shape their lives. And local news matters too. That is why a diverse range of national and regional, electronic and print as well as social media outlets in the Baltic States should thrive, including those that produce content and have audiences in Russian language.

The Baltic Independent Media Programme is a three-year programme of support to predominantly Russian language media outlets in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It seeks to strengthen media outlets’ current offering and help them expand into new areas of activity.

We are now proposing to issue a number of grants of up to €20,000, to support outlets create popular content and be sustainable.

 

Proposals that will be viewed favourably might include:

 

• Creating original content in Russian, in print form, online, audio or video
• Translating relevant content from other languages into Russian for audiences in the Baltic states
• Providing services on a new platform – for example, social media – or using a new medium, such as audio or video
• Producing a print magazine of stories published online in order to reach audiences who do not use the internet
• Training or supporting people new to journalism to produce engaging content
• Upgrading content management systems in order to provide content in mobile-friendly formats
• Improving a media outlet’s branding and marketing

Grant funding can only be used to purchase equipment with prior approval at the application stage (if you would like to use grant funding to purchase equipment, please send us an email to Bim.grants@zincnetwork.com before the application deadline). Where equipment purchasing is not permitted, applicants should budget for equipment hire.

Submit your completed applications by email to Donara Barojan, Deputy Project Director, at Bim.grants@zincnetwork.com by 23:59 on 2^nd March 2020 (GMT+2) at the latest. You can send questions to the same address.

Please find more details in the attached documents