Applications now open for the Forum Freelance Fund bursary
Applications are open for the Forum Freelance Fund, a bursary competition presented by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma.
The $2,500 bursaries, sponsored by CBC News, Radio-Canada and individual donors, are designed to help freelance journalists attend hostile work environment training. So far, 32 freelancers working for Canadian media have been supported by this fund, according to a press release from the Forum, a charity that advocates for the physical and mental wellbeing of journalists.
“Because of declining revenues, news organizations have to depend more and more on freelancers instead of staff correspondents all over the world,” said Cliff Lonsdale, the Forum president, in a press release. “Inevitably that includes some of the most dangerous places on the planet. Few organizations are able to offer training to all the freelancers they use, and few freelancers earn enough to pay for training themselves. These bursaries contribute to alleviating that problem.”
The Forum will be opening another competition in May for the $3,000 Portenier Human Rights Bursary, which aims to provide hostile environment training to freelance journalists and independent documentary filmmakers working on significant projects about human rights abuses.
The competitions are run in association with the Rory Peck Trust, a charity for freelancers based in the United Kingdom. Forum and RPT are members of the ACOS Alliance – a coalition between freelance journalist associations, press freedom organizations and news organizations – which advocates for responsible and safe journalistic practices across all platforms.
Applications for the FFF bursaries will close on April 13. For more information about this bursary, visit the Forum website.
