In 2021, Civitates granted €2,467,000 to 11 independent public-interest media outlets across Europe operating in contexts where the market has failed to support independent journalism, media have been captured by state or non-state actors, or where there has been a hostile legal environment for public-interest journalism. After three years, we decided to renew our commitment to them for another year.
The successful 11 organisations are based in 8 countries and are listed alphabetically according to the country they operate in:
IRPI is a result of the initiative of a group of journalists aiming to establish the first non-profit centre for investigative reporting in Italy. IRPI believes that collaboration with other European like-minded centres would lead to transnational high-impact investigative journalism. This collaboration would further lay the foundations for a model that could establish a safer environment for freelancers dealing with issues such as corruption and organised crime across Italy and Europe.
Bellingcat is an independent international collective of researchers and citizen journalists, consisting of a small core staff and thousands of volunteers. They use verifiable digital information to investigate a broad range of topics, validate facts, and uncover wrongdoings. Bellingcat applies an evidence-based method with maximum transparency and make their findings public with the purpose of advancing justice and accountability.
Pismo is a nationwide monthly magazine aiming to revive non-partisan journalism in Poland and restore the habit of reading long, in-depth articles. Pismo covers international politics, economy, technology, culture and society and is available in paper, digital and audio. Pismo’s mission is to influence current and future leaders of Polish economic, social and cultural life by providing in-depth, high quality, nonpartisan, diligently fact-checked content.
OKO is Poland’s leading investigative and politics online portal and in the country’s top ten opinion forming online media. The organisation aims to promote values of democracy, rule of law, human rights, equality, and transparency of public life by publishing articles, analyses, fact-checked investigations and multimedia reportages.
Divergente is an independent publication of multimedia investigative and narrative journalism. Divergente’s stories are beautifully told, well-thought-through and contextualised. The organisation focuses on investigating stories that scrutinise power and portrays contemporary social and public interest issues that are underrepresented and/or misrepresented in other media.
Átlátszó Erdély (Transparent Transylvania) is the only independent non-profit newsroom in Romania targeting the 1.2 million Hungarian community in Transylvania. With its investigations, Átlátszó Erdély aims to make public expenditures more transparent, expose abuses of power by public officials and institutions and use investigative journalism to reform public institutions. The organisation’s goal is to contribute to a transparent, accountable and democratic society.
Press One is an independent journalist organisation focusing on investigative journalism, social issues, solutions journalism and fighting disinformation and fake news. The organisation invests a lot of time and energy to build a relationship with its audience. Press One aims to strengthen democracy in Romania through in-depth, high quality and solution journalism.
Pod črto (The Bottom Line) is the first Slovenian independent and non-profit media outlet focusing on investigative reporting, data journalism and in-depth stories. Pod črto is covering a broad spectrum of topics including economic development, media, corruption, abuse of power and misuse of public funds as well as social and environmental issues. The organisation’s goal is to investigate and publish stories of major importance for a more transparent functioning of the democratic system.
Civio is an independent, non-profit news organisation that develops impactful journalism projects in the public interest, focusing on public policies and their impact on citizens. Since 2012, Civio has become the most relevant data newsroom in Spain, with a broad media presence and a growing community of supporters and donors. Its work has been recognised internationally and the organisation has received many awards and has been part of various European journalistic networks.
444.hu is an independent Hungarian news portal that covers public affairs, and have won multiple awards for investigative reporting. With their focus on public service journalism, the organisation aims to hold the powerful to account and to amplify the voices of vulnerable groups in Hungary and beyond.
Direkt36 is a non-profit investigative journalism centre with the mission to shine a light on political corruption and other forms of injustices. They publish stories on topics considered too complex or too sensitive by most news organisations to cover.
