The SafeJournalists Network, which has been focused on enhancing journalist safety and media freedom in the Western Balkans since 2015, is announcing a call for financial support (small grants) for civil society organizations and media organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo.

For detailed information about the call, download the full document here.

The primary goal of this financial support program for third parties is to increase the capacity of local civil society organizations (CSOs) and media organizations to become contact points for the SafeJournalists Network, responsible for monitoring and reporting on violations of journalists’ safety at the local level.

Program objectives

The general objective of this call is to enhance access to rights for journalists (with a focus on local journalists) by strengthening the competencies of local community organizations to detect and report journalist rights violations.

The specific objective of this call is to inform and educate local journalists about their rights and the mechanisms for exercising them.

This call is open to civil society organizations focused on human rights and media freedom, as well as media publishers that meet the general and specific conditions outlined in the detailed call text.

Regarding media and their founders/publishers, who must be registered as legal entities, it is stipulated that the founder/publisher will be the official applicant whose details are required in the Phase 1 application form and with whom the grant agreement will be signed. Although the founder/publisher is the formal grant recipient, they must designate their media outlet as the entity responsible for project implementation in cooperation with the SafeJournalists Network.

The application process consists of two phases:

Phase 1: Submission of a completed questionnaire for civil society organizations and media founders/publishers.

Out of all submitted applications, at least 35 top-ranked applicants will be selected based on defined criteria, ensuring territorial distribution. The criteria and more information on the selection process can be found in Section 11 of the full call text.

Phase 2: Submission of a project proposal.

Selected organizations will submit project proposals by completing the narrative project proposal form and project budget form, which will be subsequently provided to those selected in the first phase.

Mandatory documentation for phase 1

The applicant is required to provide the following documentation:

* Completed application form  Word document.

* Scanned copy of the applicant’s registration document from the Business Registers Agency;

* Scanned copy of the media’s registration document from the Media Register;

* Financial reports for 2023 and 2022.

The deadline for submitting the application form in Serbian and the accompanying documentation for Phase 1 is December 20, 2024, at 11:59 PM CET.