About this Program
This program aims at providing small grants to media practitioners, researchers and journalists working on investigative pieces. Under this program, AIIJ offers grants aiming at supporting impact stories that will focus on creating a positive change in society. These grants enable investigative journalists to undertake projects that examine topical issues in ways that are extraordinary. The results could be investigative documentaries and special projects that change public discourse on the subject of focus. Through this program, AIIJ is also able to run a media defense fund that focuses on the protection of investigative journalists’ rights through access to professional legal services.
This is a program that is ultimately anchored on provision of financial assistance to journalists that intend to pursue investigative stories. Investigative journalism Is inherently costly in terms of time investment and financial resources. Modern newsrooms have over the time failed to be fully committal to provision of such resources which widens the gap between good investigative journalism and reality.
As a body, we commit to supporting investigative journalists in pursuing investigative stories through lobbying for grants from bodies that are interested in using journalism as a tool to promote human rights, social justice, public resource accountability, budget advocacy, health rights, among others.
We are knowledgeable about the challenges present in the newsrooms of both the private and public media houses that are not only constrained by low budgets but as well prone to prioritization of other areas apart from the investigative desks. In addition to the low budgets in media houses, Conflict of interest smartly sneaks into the editorial policies of such houses that incidentally leads a number of investigative stories not to find no oxygen on air.
At the Institute, we believe in telling stories objectively and shining a light down the path of society that accommodates every one and we intend to do this through using well-funded investigative stories. Grants have been proven to be the best funding model for investigative stories across the board and in among other interventions, we find the solution to the abhorrent problem of lack of funding to facilitate investigative storytelling.
