Critical voices in danger! A new emergency aid programme supports journalists from crisis regions.
The MiCT Fellowship for Critical Voices is aimed at media professionals from war and crisis regions who are acutely threatened by political persecution, censorship or discrimination in their home countries. This year, the initial focus is on supporting media professionals from Afghanistan, Belarus, Russia, Myanmar and Ukraine.
Our Fellowship Programme is part of the recently founded Hannah-Arendt-Initiative. Partners of this new initiative are also the Deutsche Welle Academy, JX Fund and ECPMF.
Multi-faceted and uncomplicated support
The Fellowship is intended to provide media professionals with quick and uncomplicated support, initially until the end of the year, so that they can safely pursue their valuable work and continue to inform the target groups in their home countries.
Fellows receive technical advice, training, legal advice, psychosocial support, production support and a monthly stipend to cover their living expenses.
Over 200 Fellows selected from Afghanistan, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine
Already in September, the first Afghan Fellows of the programme were welcomed in Islamabad. After the Taliban took power, many Afghan media professionals had to leave their homes for fear of repression and persecution. After more than a year, the situation remains critical for many Afghan journalists. Some of the media workers are still in Afghanistan. Others are already in exile in Pakistan, Iran, India, Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. For media workers who are in a humanitarian admission procedure to Germany, a residential building has been rented in Islamabad/Pakistan, where there are jobs for media production.
The Russian and Belarusian journalists were also welcomed in Tbilisi as part of the Fellowship Community. Many of the Belarusian media professionals fled to Georgia in the summer of 2021 after the media landscape in their home country was dismantled. The majority of the Russian Fellows had to leave their homeland immediately after the outbreak of war in February this year. Therefore, a co-working space with 30 workstations was set up in Tbilisi/Georgia.
Among the fellows are journalists from renowned independent media renowned independent media such as Dozhd (Rain TV), Echo Moscow, Novaja Gazetta, Medusa, Zerkalo, Verstka, Holod, the Insider and Doxa.
The focus of the Fellows in Ukraine is on fostering a new and young generation of journalists. The Fellows are all under 25 years old and come mainly from the smaller towns of the country, where they work for independent, local media.
In Thailand, MiCT runs a co-working and co-living space for critical voices from Myanmar. This includes journalists, human rights activists and cultural workers.
"The work of critical journalists in crisis regions is under acute threat, which is why we have firmly anchored the protection of journalists in the coalition agreement.
I am pleased that with the MiCT Fellowship for Critical Voices, this idea is now being put into practice and that over 200 media makers* are receiving rapid support in their countries and in exile." Erhard Grundl MdB, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Member of the Subcommittee on Foreign Cultural and Educational Policy of the German Bundestag
"Especially in times of war and crisis, courageous and critical reporting is indispensable. With the global MiCT Fellowship, we would like to make our contribution to an informed and reflective public," says MiCT Managing Director Klaas Glenewinkel.
MiCT was founded in 2006 and is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation for the promotion of the press. The global fellowship programme is funded by the German Foreign Office.
In Germany, a fellowship programme is supported by the JX Fund, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), the BMW Foundation, projectbcause and Amazon, as well as private donors.
