Supporting Independent Media and Reliable Information in Moldova

ERIM and CU SENS are looking for 25 young journalists, bloggers, and media workers to participate in fact-checking and investigative training sessions and a training-by-doing program who will receive a financial contribution

Context and Objective

“Supporting Independent Media and Reliable Information in Moldova ” (SIMR)  is a two year project run by Equal Rights and Independent Media (ERIM), with its partner Cu Sens, and funded by the European Union. The project aims to support independent media, journalists, and civil society organisations (CSOs) to continue to provide quality information to the public and prompt democratic values in Moldova.

We are looking for 25 young journalists, bloggers, and media workers to participate in fact-checking and investigative training sessions and a training-by-doing program who will receive a financial contribution

Number of training beneficiaries: up to 25

Number of individual financial contributions for the training-by-doing program: up to 12

Brief description

ERIM and CU SENS intend to organise a two-day training session on fact-checking and investigative journalism tools for 25 young journalists, bloggers, and media workers to develop their skills and knowledge in the mentioned areas. The two-day training session will be organized at the beginning of April 2024 in Chisinau (the organisers will cover all the costs related to public transportation and accommodation for participants). After the training session, all 25 participants will have a chance to participate in a training-by-doing program with the CU SENS newsroom and be guided by mentors and reporters of CU SENS. The organisers intend to support the 12 best fact-checking and investigative ideas brainstormed by the training participants. The training-by-doing program will offer participants to practice their acquired skills through the production of video-based fact-checking and investigative materials that cover public interest issues. Besides professional mentorship support and a flexible working program, the participants will be paid EUR 1,200 for their work per material produced (maximum of 12 materials). By the end of this year (December 2024), it is planned to produce at least 6 materials. Other 6 materials are expected to be produced in 2025, by September 2025. However, this remains flexible based on the quality of ideas of the training-by-doing program participants. Besides the training and training-by-doing program, the organisations of participating young journalists will be prioritised for another upcoming content production institutional grant (up to EUR 10,000). However, this does not mean that the organisations of participating journalists will automatically receive the grant.

About organisers

Media Project NGO CU SENS is a Moldovan non-profit, women-led, independent investigative media outlet founded four and half years ago from a crowdfunding campaign. CU SENS’s mission is to bring high-quality, fact-based, and fact-checked video products (investigations, reportages, explainers, etc.) to the public of Moldova. Most of its high-quality journalist materials are focused on topics of public interest, which aim to expose corruption, organized crime, conflict of interests, human rights violations, and other illegalities affecting Moldova’s citizens.

ERIM Equal Rights and Independent Media (IREX Europe doing business as ERIM), is a French-based non-profit organization promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms. ERIM empowers citizens to access accurate and objective information better and critically engage with the media and information consumed.

Project background

Supporting Independent Media and Reliable Information in Moldova (SIMR) project intends to maintain a supportive environment for the media entities from Moldova by providing legal support, targeted capacity building, in particular in digital technology and fact-checking, financial sustainability, and by supporting joint initiatives with civil society actors so that society at large better understands media’s role in providing information of public interest.

Fact-checking training session:

What is the training about? The two-day training focuses on advanced techniques for documentation, fact-checking in newsrooms, and investigative tools and methods. Journalists will be trained to use national and international databases, to work with large volumes of data and thus accumulate evidence with a high degree of credibility, to distinguish between correct information and false information, to correctly interpret the data from various legal, economic, statistical documents, to verify the information from several sources to inform the public as correctly as possible.

When will it be organised? Beginning of April 2024

Why is it relevant to me as a young journalist? As a young journalist, blogger, or media worker, you might find yourself in a situation where you need to spend more hours and effort to produce or facilitate the production of more complex materials within your work or collective ones in newsrooms. The complexity might arise from the simple fact that you might not know some techniques or methods on how to structure the verification of the available information, how to verify the data you have, or how to find the data that is not available through a simple Google search. These hard efforts usually come at the cost of time, and intellectual and mental capacities, especially being under constant pressure which many journalists experience. Thus, this training is intended to equip young journalists, bloggers, and media workers with the necessary knowledge and tools to navigate easily through complex materials involving fact-checking and investigative journalism. This training is not intended to solve all the existing challenges involving fact-checking and investigative journalism work, yet it will truly build a solid foundation for your work. To apply and practically develop your skills, ERIM and CU SENS designed a unique training-by-doing program available for the participants of the training, including sound financial incentives (EUR 1,200 per material produced). The details about the program can be found below.

What are other benefits included? Only the participants of the two-day training will be eligible to continue the training-by-doing program with the newsroom of CU SENS and receive professional and flexible mentoring support, including sound remuneration for the material produced.

Training-by-doing program after fact-checking and investigative training session

What is the training-by-doing program about? The training-by-doing program is intended to increase the knowledge and practical skills in fact-checking and investigative journalism methods of the participants after passing the theoretical component (2-day training). The participants will be able to develop their own fact-checking/investigative materials with the support of CU SENS mentors and reporters. ERIM and CU SENS will provide generous financial contributions to the participants for producing fact-checking/investigative materials. The contribution of EUR 1,200 will be paid per material produced, in tranches (50% in the beginning, 50% after the publication). The duration of the training-by-doing program is based on the process of producing material.

When will it be organised? From the beginning of April 2024

What is the estimated amount of financial incentive for those who participate? This program aims to train journalists’ skills engagingly and practically. The participating journalists will be paid per the material produced. Organizers will allocate EUR 1 200 per material. Participants should produce at least one material.

Eligibility criteria (essential)

You are a journalist, blogger, or media worker with journalist experience in the production of journalistic content and working for a local or national independent media from Moldova

Selection criteria

• You have at least 2 years of journalist experience
• Motivation to learn fact–checking, investigative tools, and methods outlined in the application form
• A brief plan of integration of the knowledge acquired at the training into your work
• Quality and engagement of samples of fact-checking work, or samples of articles produced, in case you have not produced any fact-checking products.

If you are interested in applying, please fill in this online form that you can find HERE.

Content production grants for media organisations

The announcement of the grants for content production will be published in the upcoming months after the participants in the training and training-by-doing program are selected. The organizations of the participating journalists will be notified once the call is published. Media outlets/organizations of training participants will be encouraged to apply but will not automatically receive the grant.