LONDON, 3 MAY 2021 – Today, on World Press Freedom Day, the Justice for Journalists Foundation is delighted to announce the winning applications of its 2021 Investigative Grant programme. This year the Justice for Journalists Foundation has received eighty-five high-quality applications to investigate crimes against media workers committed in forty-five countries and territories.
This year, the Justice for Journalists Foundation will pledge up to 450 thousand dollars that will provide full or partial funding to investigate the following crimes against media workers:
- Colombia: The murder of indigenous communicators in Cauca
- Zimbabwe: Justice for Zimbabwean journalists
- Russia: Nizhny Novgorod city media: Life and death of local journalism
- Turkey: Power vs. pen – draining investigative journalists in the courtroom
- Russia: Investigation of mass intimidation and harassment of journalists in Khabarovsk in 2020-2021.
- South Sudan: Following the dirty money behind attacks against journalists.
- Mexico: An x-ray of impunity in crimes against journalists in Mexico: Francisco Pacheco’s murder and its investigation
- Nigeria: Lives on the line
- Belarus: The campaign of violence and intimidation against journalists all across Belarus in 2020
- India: Their last stories
- Ukraine and Lithuania: Ecosystem of three official suspects: Truth obscuring by the official investigation of Pavel Sheremet’s murder
- Russia-EU: Black snow
- Montenegro: Unresolved attacks on journalists in Montenegro
- Kyrgyzstan: Legal persecution of journalists
- UK: Investigating impunity, a decade on-the “justice for Anton” project and campaign
- Morocco: Gender-based violence practised against Moroccan women journalists, when will it stop?
- UK-China: Missions of Harm: China’s violent campaigns against Uyghur journalists abroad
- Russia: Mikhail Beketov: Unresolved murder and its beneficiaries
- Belarus: Executions, prison terms, torture: how journalism is destroyed in Belarus
- Azerbaijan: The story of an unpunished murder
- UK-Kurdistan: A dedication to my father
Due to the continuing spread of COVID-19 around the world and travel bans introduced by many governments, the Justice for Journalists Foundation’s Advisory Board follows its grant policies put forward last year. Since the safety of journalists remains a priority for us, in 2021, the Justice for Journalists Foundation will only fund projects that do not include foreign travel. Once the restrictions are lifted, the Foundation will consider the revision of this policy.
This year the Justice for Journalists Foundation will continue allocating some funds towards exploring of how the SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) is applied to obstruct journalists’ investigative efforts. Among other projects, we will also provide partial funding to those initiatives that are documenting and analysing SLAPPs.
The Justice for Journalists Foundation would like to thank its Expert Board and Advisory Board who put many hours into the stringent selection process. We are looking forward to working with the recipients of this year’s Investigative Grants.