Freedom House and the Center for Investigative Journalism provide to journalists small grants to carry out complex journalistic investigations on corruption at national, cross-border or regional level. Financial support is provided under the project "Shining a Light on Corruption in Moldova", organized by Freedom House in partnership with the Center for Investigative Journalism and funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Themes of journalistic investigations must cover concrete cases of corruption, abuse of power, conflict of interest, fraudulent management of public funds and assets, properties and assets hidden by officials, organized crime and other schemes. Applicants must complete a survey and send an updated CV. The surveys must be filled in English or Russian.

Deadline for applications is September 1, 2016.

Journalists, whose projects will be selected on a competitive basis, will be assisted by a mentor who will coordinate the research process, help the journalist in identifying and accessing sources of information, and provide modern methods of documentation and information presentation.

When reviewing the applications, priority will be given to applicants who meet the following criteria:

1. The journalistic investigation will reveal important information at the national, regional and cross-border level and will target actions of local officials, management, business, enterprises, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and others;

2. The investigation will be carried out based on a written agreement on the publication with at least one media institution in the Republic of Moldova (on-line, print media or TV);

3. The investigation process will not involve unacceptable risks to the author or media institution that will publish the investigation;

4. The author has already experience in writing journalistic investigations and takes into account ethical standards;

5. Before publishing, the investigation will be approved by the lawyer of the Center for Investigative Journalism;

6. The author will send the permission for the article to be published on www.anticoruptie.md  and www.investigatii.md.

Review of applications:

The decision of accepting applications will be taken by a board of experts consisting of specialists of the Freedom House and the Center for Investigative Journalism, investigative journalists and other project advisors.

Eligible for participation are groups of 2-3 journalists, including cross-border groups, which are interested in investigating corruption cases outside the Republic of Moldova.

Conditions for providing small grants:

Applicants are offered up to $ 1,600, once all the work agreed is accomplished. The investigation should be completed and published within six months.  The author is reimbursed directly the expenditures related to the investigation process, e.g. costs for expertise, transport, communication, copies, laboratory investigations and others.

Funds are provided in 2 stages:

1. After the project, the work plan and the budget have been approved by the board of experts;

2. After the investigation has been published/broadcast in media. Reimbursement will be done.

Reimbursement of expenditures agreed is based on documents that confirm them. The funds will be transferred to the card account in MDL, under a civil law contract. All taxes and fees are included in the amount allocated.

The investigations will be published on www.anticoruptie.md and www.investigatii.md in Romanian and Russian. Also, the reports will be distributed to national and regional media. The best investigations will be distributed in English.

The application form and the updated CV must be submitted by September 1, 2016 to [email protected] For more details, you can contact Tatiana Puiu - 079720003.

The application form is available at:  Application-form-FF