Meedan has created the Check Global Independent Media Response Fund (IMRF), which offers micro-grants, training, and networking opportunities to support small and medium-sized media organizations and initiatives across various regions in the larger world.
Larger World: Tackling climate misinformation
The idea behind the IMRF is to focus, each year, on a global challenge, paying particular attention to the ways in which it affects hyperlocal communities in our regions of operation. The focus for the first call in 2022-2023 was climate misinformation.
Climate change is one of the most pressing concerns of the 21st century. Despite its urgency, governments will not deal productively with this issue. Meedan considers that journalists, media practitioners, local journalism initiatives, and independent media organizations have an important role, a multifaceted one; while raising awareness about climate change and its causes, they should also enable and amplify the voices of the communities who are directly impacted by climate change.
The fund supports independent media workers and grassroots media initiatives addressing climate misinformation and their impact on the local level through the lens of hyperlocal journalism, innovative technologies, training, media literacy programs, fact-checking initiatives, media monitoring, among others.
