Supporting hard-hit media sector in Sub-Saharan Africa

As Sub Saharan media outlets have been hit hard by the Covid-19 outbreak making it difficult for media to operate efficiently and provide people with the information they need, a new EU financed programme is giving support to individual journalists and media organisations across the continent.

In collaboration with Free Press Unlimited, Reporters Without Borders, Fondation Hirondelle, Article 19 and Deutch Welle Akademie, IMS is taking part in the new programme that aims to contribute to better informed populations and help people to know how to protect themselves against COVID-19, to mitigate risks and limit the number of casualties.

As part of the programme, sub-grants will be made available for Sub Saharan journalists and media houses that are left with little income-generating options as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

This will provide these media stakeholders time to adapt and survive the crisis and to provide relevant and life-saving information on the pandemic to their audiences – especially to vulnerable and neglected groups.

With this emergency funding, IMS aims to support journalists and media organisations in producing quality public interest content that reaches a large audience including the most marginalized communities.

The focus of the support is on maintaining and boosting newsroom capacity on content generation, especially when it comes to diversity on voices and issues, protection of journalists and enhancing dialogue between media and authorities.

For more information about the project

To learn how to apply for emergency funds as a media organisation