News - EU journalists selected for 2012 fellowship

BERLIN - Fondation EurActiv PoliTech and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, with the help of an international jury including Radio France International and Deutsche Press Agentur, selected 12 professional journalists to take part in a weeklong intensive seminar on “Making local stories European and European stories local” in Berlin.

The 12 ‘up and coming’ young people come from eight European countries (UK, FR, DE, ES, PL, GR, DK and NL). Two of these journalists come from radio/TV, two are writing for trade union publications and the rest come from a mix of regional and national media. All have expressed a strong desire to learn more about reporting Europe.

"The high-quality of applicants this year impressed the jury who had a challenging task selecting the best 12 from a cracking short-list of 20 applicants to travel to Berlin" said Aidan White from the Global Editors Network and former Secretary General of IFJ.

“The aim of this expanded project is to build a network of young journalists with experience of working at EU level, in Brussels each fellow will have an opportunity to attend an EU Summit press conference, to interview at least one VIP as well as sending a steady flow of EU related articles to their home media” said Christian Hänel, Deputy Head of Department International Relations Western Europe, of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

The second phase will take place between May and October 2012 and consists of an eight-week internship in Brussels, a trip to a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, opportunities to interview VIPs and access to one of the scheduled EU Summits. Each journalist will be assigned to a senior editor, who will act as their mentor and coach. Each of the selected journalists will produce articles for publication on EurActiv.com and in their home media. The selected journalists will be reimbursed by Fondation EurActiv PoliTech, thanks to the Robert Bosch Stiftung, for their travel costs to and from Berlin, to and from Brussels/Strasbourg and for their living expenses while in Brussels. They will continue to be employed by their sending media.

Fondation EurActiv PoliTech is keen to expand this programme in the second half of 2012 and again in 2013. Interested grant-makers are welcome to request information from Julian Oliver (SecGen@EurActiv.com). More information on Robert Bosch Stiftung Programmes for Journalists can be found here.