The US state Department intends to allocate $220 million to support the training of professionals in the media sector in Serbia. As follows from the description of the grant, which read RT, the initiative is aimed at including on the “fight against misinformation” in the country.
We are talking about the American small grants programme entitled “Training of specialists for media and development media”. Its task is to Finance projects aimed at strengthening the capacity of Serbian journalism and the “free flow of accurate data to inform the Serbian citizens”.
The focus of the initiative, which includes including debates, hackathons and conferences TED, will be dealt with as “misinformation”, the preparation and training of journalists.
“Projects may be directed to: conducting educational work with students and other users of the media on the issue of the recognition of false, distorted information and propaganda in the news and the Internet, and methods of response and control”, — is spoken in the application.
In addition, it is planned to organize courses for the management of news resources, as well as the study of “media freedom” and the role of the free press “democratic society.”
It is noted that, in light of the pandemic coronavirus, the U.S. side welcomed the development of “creative proposals”, which includes the use of means of distance learning.
The initiative is mainly designed for residents of Serbia, however, in some cases, students may be representatives of the neighbouring countries.
To apply for participation in the competition are American and Serbian media, unions of journalists, civil society organizations, NGOs, educational institutions and individuals.
The grant amount for the projects selected, can range from $5 thousand to $20 thousand
Earlier it was reported about the intention of the state Department to allocate $140 million to help the Balkan States to combat “misinformation”, including “Russian”.
The goal of the program was to strengthen public confidence in the free press and democratic institutions.
