Our investigative budget is waiting for your ideas
This year, Republik and Project R are once again sponsoring uncomfortable, brave, investigative journalism. We’re looking for daring writers – and investigations that will get people’s attention. The next deadline for applications is March 18, 2019.
26.02.2019
Journalismus kostet. Dass Sie diesen Beitrag trotzdem lesen können, verdanken Sie den rund 27’000 Leserinnen, die die Republik schon finanzieren. Wenn auch Sie unabhängigen Journalismus möglich machen wollen: Kommen Sie an Bord!
Republik and Project R have had an investigative budget since the beginning of 2018. And it's having an impact.
Many of the big stories that have appeared in Republik were made possible by this budget. It began with «Race, Class, Guns and God», the five-part road movie about Trump's America. It continued with the «Murder in Malta» series. Our exposé about a Swiss construction cartel forced a candidate for state government to resign. We investigated cum-ex tax evasion, drug policy, and we published a piece about the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
But our budget has also sponsored smaller works, including investigations about an informant within the An'Nur mosque in Winterthur, Switzerland, whose cover was blown and who must now fear for his life. We wrote about the billion-dollar eel trade and followed the trail of the Russian doping scandal all the way to a doctor in Bern.
We intend to continue our efforts in 2019. But to do so, we need you. Your journalistic instincts. Your tenacity. Your investigations.
There are a few rules
Apply now! And answer these ten questions:
What is the working title of your piece?
In a sentence, what is the story?
In no more than 3000 characters, what is it about, roughly?
What's new about it?
What is the best possible outcome (ideal story)? If everything fails, what is the very least that you will have (minimum story)?
What impact will it have?
How would you like to tell your story? Will there be multimedia elements?
What budget do you require? Please differentiate between daily rates and material costs.
What is your ideal schedule?
Who are you? What has been your most successful project to date? Are there any conflicts of interest?
Please send your answers to these ten questions – as succinctly as possible – as well as your contact details to recherchen@republik.ch.
We are continuously reviewing new applications, but the next big announcement of selected projects will take place mid-March. We therefore ask you kindly to please apply by:
March 18, 2019
The projects to be supported will be chosen by a committee made up of editors-in-chief and specialist editors, strictly according to journalistic criteria.
We promise: Your idea will be kept confidential.
Please understand that we want to allocate the money from our investigative budget as efficiently as possible. This is why there are tiered budgets. The budget for the first stage is capped at 5000 Swiss francs (4400 euros, $4968). After that, we will decide together how to proceed. Is the investigation finished and ready for production? Are further investigative efforts required? Or could it be expanded even more with additional resources? What can we at Republik contribute in terms of know-how and technology?
Your rights, our rights
Republik will disseminate the product of the investigation on all of its media channels exclusively for four weeks. After that, the rights of use will go back to the creator. You may then further investigate, write and publish as you see fit. Regardless of where the story appears, it must include the text: «Sponsored by the investigative budget of Republik and Project R».