Deadline: 18 September 2015
The African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) Enhanced Media Reporting for Transparency and Accountability programme is inviting journalists in Uganda to apply for the fourth round of story writing grants.
Since 2014 ACME has awarded grants to 50 journalists, enabling the reporting of a wide array of issues from road infrastructure financing and the demise of the agriculture extension services to land tenure reforms and the plight of the hundreds of mentally ill people incarcerated in Uganda’s prisons.
The grant programme is intended to advance creative reporting approaches, innovative storytelling, and in-depth investigations to enable a sustained culture of public affairs journalism. It is not about support for the most experienced journalists or largest media outlet. Rather, it strives to lend a hand to passionate individuals armed with the skills to independently investigate and tell important stories that have gone unreported in the mainstream media.
Focus Areas
The story proposal should fall under at least one of the following areas:
- Agriculture
- Energy, oil, gas & mining
- Education
- Health
- Justice, law and order
- Land and property rights
- Local government
- Parliament
- Business, finance & economy
- Science and technology
- Transport, infrastructure and public works
- Water and environment
Selection Criteria
The grantees will be selected based on, but not limited to the following criteria:
- The news value of the project and the importance of the topic to the audiences that the work will inform;
- The originality and proposed depth of the investigation demonstrated by preliminary evidence-based research;
- The strength of the connection between the proposed expense and the quality or quantity of eventual journalistic outputs;
- The demonstrated ability of applicants to pursue and accomplish ambitious reporting projects;
- The qualifications and track record of the applicant; and
- Written editorial support and a pledge of publication or broadcast of the final product.
Eligibility Criteria
- The EMERTA story grants are open to all Ugandan journalists, writers, photographers, and radio and television producers. Both freelancers and full-time reporters from across Uganda may apply. Women and journalists from outside Kampala are strongly encouraged to apply.
- Upon selection, all grantees MUST attend a one-day induction seminar during which they will work with ACME to refine their story proposals as well as be informed on accounting requirements related to the grant.
How to Apply
- Interested applicants can apply either online or by submitting the application form.
- Applicants can find both the application components on the given website.
For more information, please visit Grants for Journalists.
