Belgium:
€250,000 per year to fund research grants for journalists in the French-speaking community of Belgium – that's "the good news of the year", according to the monthly publication of the French-Belgian Journalists' Union.
On 27 May, the government of the French-speaking community in Belgium (representing about 40 per cent of the population) assigned the amount to the Association des Journalistes Professionnels, who will establish an independent jury to distribute the grants, according to their 27 May press release. The journalists' union refers to existing independent funds: the Pascal Decroos Fund in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium and the Fund for Special Journalism in the Netherlands. These funds have practised the model of individual grants for quality journalism for 10 and 19 years, respectively.
However, the idea of research grants to further investigative journalism is gaining ground not only in Belgium. In Denmark, two journalists are currently working on a similar initiative.
Denmark
“We have the promise of one million Danish crowns,” says Miki Mistrati, the award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Bastard Film. Along with journalist Mads Bruun Pedersen, he is working to establish a new fund to provide research grants for individual journalists and small teams.
“Over the past 4–5 years, conditions for investigative journalists have worsened,” Mistrati tells Journalismfund.eu. During a visit to New York, he was inspired by ProPublica's model of alternative funding for investigative journalism and decided to develop a similar model for his home country.
The idea is that the new fund will particularly support the early phases of investigative stories. It is then expected that, when TV companies invest in the story with production money, the preliminary investment can be returned to the fund. However, this model is hardly viable for print journalists, so some money will be granted without a payback clause.
'It's funding for the basic research that we lack today,' says Mistrati, who also mentions the 'irritation' about the generally poor quality of journalism.
According to Mistrati, a media company that has not yet been named has promised to support the fund with one million Danish crowns (approximately €130,000). Mistrati is currently contacting private companies and others for further support, and hopes to launch the fund in autumn 2009.
European Union
At a European level, a new attempt is being made to establish support for research journalism across Europe. According to the Danish journalists' union magazine Journalisten, two members of the European Parliament — the Danish Liberal Anne E. Jensen and the German Green Helga Trüpel — are suggesting a €3 million fund to support cross-border research journalism.
In an interview with the magazine, Anne E. Jensen states that she considers such a grant a great opportunity, not least to improve European coverage, where journalists often fail to document cross-border issues. Jensen, a former editor-in-chief at the Danish daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende, believes that cross-border research is essential. 'As a politician, I actually need this type of public sphere in the EU.'
This recent attempt is not the first of its kind. Previously, Belgian social democrat Mia de Vits and Belgian conservative Ivo Belet, a former journalist and editor at Flemish TV VRT, made a similar attempt.
Their work was successful, resulting in the introduction of a fund for cross-border research grants in the EU budget for 2007. However, during budget negotiations, the idea was dismissed that year.
Their work was successful, resulting in the introduction of a fund for cross-border research grants in the EU budget for 2007. However, during budget negotiations, the idea was dismissed that year.