noam chomsky banned......

Noam Chomsky, widely known as one of the foremost critics of U.S. foreign policy, has had his work banned from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where a detainee requested his bookInternventions. As Chomsky dryly pointed out, "Of some incidental interest, perhaps, is the nature of the book they banned.  It consists of op-eds written for the New York Timessyndicate, and distributed by them.  The subversive rot must run very deep."

Read the full story, "Anti-war activist's works banned at prison camps" at the Miami Herald, and most importantly the banned book itself, published by City Lights and asIntervenciones, in espanol by Haymarket.

No more excuses

Journalists sometimes say, that oh yes, it would be no problem to do this fantastic story if just…. they had a bit of extra time for the research or if just…. they had a bit of extra money to meet with another colleague to cooperate on the research or if just….

For those journalists, who have a good story with relevance in Europe or in several European countries there is now a bit of help!

Journalismfund.eu supports cross-border research carried out by journalists from several European countries. Jouranlismfund.eu gives individual research grants to small teams of journalists, who have a good story. A new call for applications is out today. This round € 20.000 are to be distributed.

Of course there are always two main questions: Where does the money come from, and what about editorial independence?

Well!

Journalismfund.eu is a project of the Belgian Pascal Decroos Fund, the FPD, which for ten years has given this type of research grants to journalists working on a story with relevance in Flanders. The FPD provides offices and other facilities.

The initial seed funding comes from the Norwegian freedom of speech foundation Fritt Ord

The current second level seed funding now comes from the Open Society Institute’s Media Program. Read about the funding for the research grants.

And the editorial independence?

Every time, money is granted to journalism, there must be a buffer to guarantee editorial independence. In this case we have chosen a combination of two elements. Journalists and investigative journalist organizations give their good reputation to Journalismfund.eu by joining the advisory board. In addition we have a model with an anonymous jury.

The jury consists of four persons. They were selected in the spring of 2009 among a long-list of highly respected media persons gathered by the advisory board. In the spring of 2011 the first two members will leave the board and their names will be published then.

Are there any criteria and rules? Yes, there are. Journalismfund.eu aims to fulfill the niche of covering stories that go across borders or have relevance in several European countries, se the rules for application and the assessment criteria, which the jury applies.

For other types of support for example on national level or outside the European Union and the European Economic Area have a look at our list of other journalism grants.

So now – no more excuses!

Get inspiration from our list of cross-border reporting projects and read more about alternative funding for journalism in our news section and in the archive.