The Nordic Council of Ministers announced today 225.000 euros in journalism and media funding to advance efforts in the development of minority language media in the Baltic countries. 29 grants were approved to support professional content creation and storytelling with a special focus on minority languages and ethnically diverse regions. Open to media companies and journalists in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, this grant provides up to 10.000 euros for content projects with duration up to 12 months.
“Minority language media play a key role in ensuring democracy and inclusion in the Baltic countries. This grant scheme does not solve all the problems that the media sector is facing in times of fundamental transformation due to technological change and new media consumption habits. We still hope that the programme will contribute to strengthening a sustainable and independent media sector in minority languages”, says Stefan Eriksson, Director of the Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Latvia.
The programme has received total of 75 applications (32 from Lithuania, 29 from Latvia and 14 from Estonia). Of those, 29 were awarded support - 11 from Lithuania, 9 from Latvia, 9 from Estonia.
Following a list of the granted Latvian projects:
Rīgas Laiks: “Content development of the Russian language quarterly Rīgas Laiks”;
Ezerzeme: “Latgale – region of opportunities”, success and challenges stories about business environment in Latgale;
Kurzemes vārds: “Local newspapers are still alive”, articles in the weekly newspaper “Лиепайская неделя”;
Delfi: “Story of the day”, analytical content in Russian;
LETA: “Section LETA+”, analytical content in the Russian language;
Elvita Ruka: “My Gypsy Year”, a series of publications supplemented with visual material.
Smartlatvia.lv: “(Re)migration/People’s Republic on smartlatvia.lv”, series of articles on demographics and migration;
TVNET: “Dividing History: Suitcase, Station, Russia”, stories about today's attitudes towards Russia, to show the history of integration into another society - how they managed to preserve their culture and language.
Latgales laiks: “Latgale - multicultural region of Latvia: a reflection of migration and integration in the light of the economic and social processes”, stories about Russian speaking inhabitants and ethnically mixed families in Latgale.
All funded projects have to be freely accessible to a national or global online audience without any access barriers such as paywalls or registration. The grant allows for full editorial independence and the Nordic Council of Ministers shall not exert any influence on the editorial decision-making of the media production.
This grant scheme is a continuation of The Nordic Council of Ministers’ support program for media production, media knowledge, and media literacy for the minorities in the Baltic countries. The program has been awarding media support in the Baltic countries since 2017. One round of the grants is awarded per year. The grant is implemented by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ offices in the Baltic countries.
For more information, visit www.nordicmediagrants.org
