Report for the World, East-West Center launch new reporting initiative for Pacific Island newsrooms

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December 1, 2023 — Report for the World, in partnership with East-West Center, invites independent news organizations from across the Pacific Islands to apply to host a full-time financial investigative journalist for up to three years.

Newsrooms are invited to apply between now and Jan. 15. They will be asked to make the case for the types of stories they’d like to pursue, the impact their work may have, and how they will provide support and mentorship to the reporters.

The Pacific Islands Financial Investigative Reporting and Mentorship Initiative will support Report for the World corps members in six partner newsrooms in five to six Pacific Island countries, which may include The Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

“While these countries are financially challenged in meeting the needs of independent, investigative journalism, they are also facing a combination of other crises, from severe climate impacts to socio-economic fallouts,” said Preethi Nallu, executive director of Report for the World. “We hope that this call will result in financial journalist roles that explore an intersection of public interest issues specific to each country. We will also help the newsroom partners create sustainability and greater audience engagement around the beats that we co-support with East-West Center.”

This special call for newsrooms is supported in part by PROJECT Governance, a multi-year partnership between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Pacific Community, and East-West Center to strengthen democratic institutions and promote sound, just, and responsive government in the Pacific Islands region.

Report for the World currently partners with 32 newsrooms in 20 countries across the globe. Selected newsrooms will join its growing network of host newsroom partners, as it deepens its presence in different regions through editorial collaborations and professional development of its reporting corps.

If selected, Report for the World and East-West Center will provide newsrooms with salary support to hire local journalists and offer professional development in journalism safety, cyber security, investigative reporting, visual journalism, international collaboration and story design.

The application process for Report for the World is highly competitive with two rounds of interviews with shortlisted applicants to determine a mutually beneficial fit. The selected newsrooms will then hire corps members through a competitive process and welcome them as full-time employees of the newsrooms for up to three years.

Report for the World draws upon best practices learned from GroundTruth’s successful Report for America program, which has supported more than 600 local reporting positions in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. since its founding in 2017.

Like its sister program, Report for the World is based on a matching model that catalyzes new revenue for independent journalism. Report for the World pays for half the full-time salary of a corps member in the first two years, while coaching and supporting local partner newsrooms to raise the other half of the salary through philanthropy, earned revenue and crowdfunding — whether within a newsroom’s home country or the global diaspora.

“Partnering with East-West Center allows Report for the World to work deeply in the Pacific Islands with an organization that brings decades of regional expertise to the relationship, ensuring strong outcomes,” said Kevin Grant, co-founder and chief development officer at The GroundTruth Project. “Over time we plan to develop similarly robust partnerships in every region of the world.”

Report for the World is generously supported by Google News Initiative, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft, JournalismFund.eu and individual contributors from around the globe.

About Report for the World

Report for the World is an international journalism program that matches local newsrooms with talented journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe. By creating a more sustainable and impactful media ecosystem, Report for the World informs, engages, and enables communities through public service journalism. Report for the World is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up.

About East-West Center

East-West Center, established by the US Congress in 1960, serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options. EWC is an independent, public nonprofit organization with funding from the US government and additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and governments in the region. EWC has been supporting independent journalism in the Indo Asia-Pacific region since 1967 through prestigious reporting fellowships, collaborative professional development programming, and flagship international conferences for the media.

 

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