History

02 February 2023
Recruiting a total of 18 newsrooms all over Europe to be part of a cohort to advance solutions journalism. SoJo Europe aims to respond to the need for media organisations across Europe to pursue different approaches to increase reader trust, audience share, and revenue by creating a cross-European solutions journalism journalism knowledge hub and encouraging systemic cooperation between professional news media organisations.

07 March 2023
The General Assembly of Journalismfund.eu vzw decides to change the organisation's official name to Journalismfund Europe vzw.

13 December 2022
Struggling local, regional and community media in Europe is to receive a financial boost of over 2 million euros through a new EU-funded project “Local Media for Democracy” (#localmedia4democracy). It aims to revive the local media landscape in the news desert areas with measures to build resilience, independence, and sustainability by improving their capacity in innovation, business strategies, and audience engagement.

01 March 2022
Four European organisations are joining forces to strengthen cross-border, local investigative journalism in Europe through “Cross-border Local”. With financial support from the European Commission (Creative Europe) and Adessium, Transitions (Czech Republic), SSE Riga Centre for Media Studies (Latvia), the European Federation of Journalists (Belgium), and Journalismfund.eu (Belgium) will undertake a multifaceted, 1.3-million-euro programme that will impact the journalism profession across the continent.

18 February 2022
The Flemish Governement, represented by Mr. Benjamin Dalle, Flemish Minister of Brussels, Youth and Media and Journalismfund.eu vzw have signed for the first time a cooperation agreement for a period of 4 years (2022-2025). The contract provides  a subsidy of 481.000 euros per year for the Pascal Decroos Fund project and FPD Low Countries.

08 December 2021
Journalismfund.eu is back at the old address in the Leopoldstraat 6, 1000 Brussels.

31 August 2021
For the second time the Flemish minister of innovation Hilde Crevits provides funding (€80.000) for setting up the pilot project science journalism in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.

10 August 2021
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.

04 February 2021
Journalismfund.eu launches ‘Modern Slavery Unveiled’, a project to provide critical resources and know-how to journalists to investigate exploitation of Asian victims of human trafficking and forced labour in Europe.

14 January 2021
Together with the science journalism pilot project, we are launching a completely new application website.

19 December 2020
The Flemish minister of innovation Hilde Crevits has awarded a project subsidy to Journalismfund.eu for setting up a pilot project to support science journalism in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.

15 December 2020
Journalismfund.eu has temporarily moved to rue Gallaitstraat 76, 1030 Brussels due to renovations.

04 September 2020
Journalismfund.eu is starting a pilot project, Journalismfund.eu LOCAL, in which Belgian and Dutch journalists can jointly apply for a grant for local investigative journalism. Journalismfund.eu has the ambition to further roll out this project on a European scale, and is looking for donors to do so.

02 June 2020
The Flemish Government took a final decision on the amount of emergency funds to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes support to Journalismfund.eu, via the Fonds Pascal Decroos project, for local projects of freelance (Dutch speaking) journalists who can rely on few other support measures.

24 December 2019
The Flemish minister of Media, Benjamin Dalle, decided to stop funding The Flemish Journalism Fund.

19 November 2018
Journalismfund.eu moved to a new office in the center of Brussels.

18 September 2018
The board of Journalisfund.eu decided to make The European Investigative Journalism Conference (EIJC) & Dataharvest a stand-alone venture in its own right, fully independent from Journalismfund.eu

10 September 2018
The Flemish Journalism Fund was created in the Summer of 2018 to support diversity and innovation in journalism in Flanders. The Fund is a project of Journalismfund.eu, in partnership with the Flemish Association of Journalists and the Flemish government. Unfortunately, the next Flemish government decided to prematurely cut the Fund in the beginning of 2020.

24 August 2018
The Flemish minister of Media, Sven Gatz, decided to increase the budget in 2018 from €300.000 to €400.000 per year in order to give more grants under the Fonds Pascal Decroos grant program.

19 July 2018
Open Society Foundations supports Journalismfund.eu with a grant of $500.000 for a period of 3 years. The grant period shall be from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2020. The grant is ment to support the European cross-border grant program.

11 June 2018
Oxfam Novib shall make a contribution of €853.060 for the period of 01.04.2018 through 31.03.2021. This support is intended to develop the The Money Trail.

15 November 2017
Adessium Foundation decides to support Journalismfund.eu’s European cross-border grant program as a premium donor for a period of three years, from 2017 until 2020. Adessium will make available to Journalismfund.eu a donation to a total amount of €750.000.

August 2016
Adessium has donated an additional grant of €275.000 to Journalismfund.eu, in order for Journalismfund.eu to have time and the means to continue its operations and to draft a multi-annual strategic plan.

17 November 2015
The International Department of the Flemish government provides Journalismfund.eu with €167,540 to give out grants for intercontinental collaborative journalism projects between Flemish and Sub-Sahara African journalists. The new grant programme is called Flanders Connects Continents.

2 July 2015
Launch of the Freedom of Expression Research Grant (FOX-grants), a grant programme by Journalismfund.eu and the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), with the support of the European Commission. (Budget of 30K).

24 June 2015
A new European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) was founded on June 24th as an independent non-profit European Cooperative Society, with Journalismfund.eu as one of the consortium partners. Read more here.

9 January 2015
Open Society Foundations supports Journalismfund.eu with a grant of €190,000 for a period of two years, from the beginning of 2015 until the end of 2016.

9 May 2014
Dutch NGO Oxfam Novib provides Journalismfund.eu with €150,000 to set up a new grant programme for intercontinental collaborative investigative journalism projects between Sub-Saharan African and European journalists: Connecting Continents.

8 October 2013
The driving forces behind Journalismfund.eu, Danish-German journalist Brigitte Alfter and Belgian Ides Debruyne, have been awarded the Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media 2013 for their efforts to help secure the future of investigative journalism.

30 September 2013
Adessium Foundation decides to donate a grant of €554.300 to Journalismfund.eu, in order to foster the core activities of Journalismfund.eu: research grants and maintaining a network platform for a period of three years, from October 2013 until September 2016.

22 January 2013
The General Assembly of Fonds Pascal Decroos voor Bijzondere Journalistiek vzw decides to change the organisation's official name to Journalismfund.eu vzw. The former alternative name of the European cross-border grant project, European Fund for Investigative Journalism, is officially left behind.

9 October 2012
In 2012, The Pascal Decroos Fund asked Margo Smit to lead a team of over 80 European journalists to compile the report 'Deterrence of fraud with EU-funds through investigative journalism in EU-27'. The report was written on request of the European Parliament's Budgettary Control Committee, with Smit as principal author. Highlights can be found here. The Pascal Decroos Fund (represented by Margo Smit and Ides Debruyne) presented the study to a European Parliamentary Committee on 9 October 2012.

12 December 2011
Open Society Foundations provides the Pascal Decroos Fund with €324,000 for its European cross-border grants project and other related projects Wobbing Europe, dataharvest.eu and Farmsubsidy.org.

12 December 2011
Farmsubsidy.org under the wings of The Pascal Decroos Fund.

22 March 2011
The website wobbing.eu gets a makeover.

February 2011
Adessium has donated a grant of €18.940 to the Pascal Decroos Fund, regarding the possible establishment of a structure to promote quality (investigative) journalism in Europe.

20 December 2010

The €1.5 million in subsidies for the promotion of investigative journalism that the European Parliament approved (through lobbying by the Pascal Decroos Fund) are postponed by the European Commission.

24 January 2010
The first article supported by our European cross-border grants project (the so-called European Fund for Investigative Journalism) is published - 'Fields of Terror, Slave Trade in the Heart of Europe'

3 December 2009
On the basis of an umbrella mapping site, the Pascal Decroos Fund wants to map media research in Flanders and underline the importance of scientific research for the media sector: www.mediaonderzoek.be (project stopped in 2012)

1 October 2009
Open Society Institute approves €114,000 in seed funding for the further development of the European cross-border grants project.

16 September 2009
The French Community of Belgium starts a fund for investigative journalism in imitation of the Pascal Decroos Fund: Fonds pour le journalisme.

19 March 2009
Flemish Minister-President Kris Peeters announces on a States-General of the Media that the budget of the Pascal Decroos Fund's will be doubled (for only one year).

20 February 2009
The Pascal Decroos Fund officially launches its European project for quality cross-border journalism. The Norwegian Fritt Ord seed-funded the project with €50,000 grant.

25 November 2008
The Pascal Decroos Fund organises the first European Wob-conference (The European Investigative Journalism Conference / Dataharvest.eu) in Brussels.

03 May 2008
In Flanders, the Pascal Decroos Fund starts a journalistic discussion forum on the international day of press freedom: Mediakritiek.be. Mediakritiek.be is a site for journalists and media people. The Pascal Decroos Fund therefore invites them to weigh their own work and that of colleagues, and to respond to the analyzes of others.

4 October 2007
The Pascal Decroos Fund launches Wobbing Europe.

22 June 2004
University College KHM (Thomas More), together with the Pascal Decroos Fund, for the first time, organises a postgraduate course in International Research Journalism.

January 2002
The Flemish dissertation award is launched under the umbrella of the fund. In 2005 SciMingo (formerly known as Scriptie vzw) becomes a non-profit organisation that promotes science communication in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium.

11 September 2001
Ides Debruyne is appointed as the new managing director of the Pascal Decroos Fund.

11 October 1999
The launch of the Pascal Decroos Fund is announced during a press conference. Koen Van Wichelen is the Fund's first director. The Fund is supported by the Flemish government and is attributed to an annual subsidy of €186,000.

13 July 1999
The Minister-President of the Flemish government, Flemish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs, Science and Technology Luc Van den Brande signs a Ministerial Order granting the Pascal Decroos Fund 7,500,000 Belgian Francs in subsidies.

21 May 1998
The statutes of Fonds Pascal Decroos voor Bijzondere Journalistiek vzw are published in the Belgian Official Journal of 21.05.1998 with identification code 9338/38.

9 January 1998
Friends, colleagues and family of Pascal Decroos gather for the first time. In memory of Pascal they set up a fund: 'Fonds Pascal Decroos voor Bijzondere Journalistiek vzw'. inspired by the Dutch Fonds voor Bijzondere Journalistieke projecten and the American Fund for Investigate Journalism.

2 December 1997
Flemish TV journalist Pascal Decroos dies in a car accident.