Application Deadline: May 24, 2020
The Thomson Reuters Foundation’s COVID-19 Crisis Reporting EAP Hub creates a space for journalists across several countries in Eastern Europe to gather virtually for training, knowledge sharing, expert sessions and network building, ensuring that they and their newsrooms remain on top of the story of the year.
The main goal of the project is to help the participants improve their ability to cover the COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing impact on Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine such as economic, political, social, financial, societal and personal fallouts from the pandemics.
The project will be flexible adjusting to the developments as they take place. It will equip participants with the skills to report on the pandemic and future global-scale disasters and events. Participants will be encouraged to create real life stories for their media and also to work with colleagues from other countries in order to produce cross border stories. Some mentoring in this area will be offered.
Focus Areas
The programme of the project will cover:
• Overall knowledge and understanding of coronavirus
• Medical, economic, financial and business angles
• New online instruments and platforms
• How to search for trusted information and identify fake news
• How individual medias in the region create new products, how they promote and monetise them
• Working with big data
• Best and worst practices of visualising stories on the pandemics and its fallout
• Ethical reporting and standards
Funding
• Participants are expected to cover their own Internet/data costs, but small grants are available to support content production.
Eligibility
Applicants must be:
• Nationals based in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine;
• Working as full-time journalists or regular contributors for local language and Russian-language media organisations in the respective countries;
• They must have a minimum of three years professional experience and have a good level of spoken and written Russian. The main working language is Russian though mentoring and coordinating assistance would be available in English;
• Able to commit to the full length of the 12 week training programming ;
• Ability to produce up to 3 pieces of content during the 12 week programme;
• Demonstrable commitment to impartial, accurate and independent journalism;
• Applicants must have access to a minimum internet speed of 1 MB/second.
Application
Applicants are to submit the following:
• Two relevant work samples (maximum file size 5 MB) – in Russian. TV/Radio journalists can send in their scripts and a brief summary.
• A free-form letter of editorial support (maximum file size 5 MB) in Russian or English where your employer agree on your participation in this programme and topics you suppose to cover during the course
• A biography of up to 250 words outlining your career
• A statement of between 250 and 500 words describing any factors affecting your work as a journalist and how you hope to benefit from this training programme which you are applying for.
For more information, visit Thomson Reuters Foundation.
