LONDON, ON, March 19, 2018 /CNW/ - The Forum Freelance Fund (FFF) today opened its 2018 competition for bursaries to help freelance journalists attend hostile environment training. Twenty-seven Canadian freelancers or foreign freelancers working for Canadian media have already been helped by the fund.
The FFF bursary competition is run annually by the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, an educational charity concerned with the physical and mental wellbeing of journalists.
The Rules for the 2018 competition are available on the Forum's website. The bursaries are worth $2,500 each.
In a separate competition opening in May, the Forum also offers The Portenier Human Rights Bursary, which is open to freelance journalists and independent documentary-makers of any nationality with significant projects focused on human rights abuses. This bursary of $3,000 is also for hostile environment training.
Both competitions are run in association with the Rory Peck Trust (RPT), a UK-based charity for freelancers. The Forum and RPT are both members of the ACOS Alliance, an unprecedented coalition of news organizations, freelance journalist associations and press freedom organizations working together to champion safe and responsible journalistic practices for freelance and local journalists.
The FFF bursaries are sponsored by CBC News and supported by Radio-Canada and individual donors. The Forum in general is supported by The Globe and Mail and Cision/CNW
Forum president Cliff Lonsdale said: "The world has become a very dangerous place for journalists, and freelancers working without the backing of a single employer are particularly at risk. That risk is compounded by economic changes that have reduced the number of foreign correspondents on staff at many news organizations, so that reliance on freelancers has increased."
Applications for 2018 FFF Bursaries will close on April 19.
Our thanks to Cision /CNW for supporting this announcement.
SOURCE Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma
Please see the Canadian Journalism Forum website http://www.journalismforum.ca or contact Jane Hawkes, Executive Producer, Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, 1-519 852-4946, [email protected]
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