Earmarked funding for Norwegian journalism

April 3 2018

The Fritt Ord Foundation is allocating up to MNOK 25 annually for four years for journalistic projects. The MNOK 100 initiative is entitled Norwegian Journalism.

For quite some time, the Fritt Ord Foundation has had media and journalism as one of its core target areas. In the current demanding situation being experienced by the media, and thereby by the public sphere as a whole, we aspire to do even more to support and promote high-quality journalism in several fields.

The call for applications has seven deadlines for applications during the year. The next deadline is Monday, 19 February 2018, at 3 p.m. Applications should be submitted to the Fritt Ord Foundation’s application centre.

More about the scheme
The projects are to target a general Norwegian audience. Applicants may use any publication platform, and are encouraged to be multi-medial. Any independent, editor-driven publication with Norwegian media users as its target group may apply. The applicants may be editorial boards or individuals, but all support is to go to named individuals. We are open to new forms of cooperation between several editorial boards/groups of journalists, and freelancers with publication agreements are invited to apply.

Our most cogent wish is to support the production of content for publication, rather than providing funding for operating expenses, development projects and technical equipment.

We ask that project outlines be as concrete as possible, covering 3 to 5 pages, accompanied by brief attachments containing a timetable, information about other sources of funding, an overall project budget and a list of project team members with five lines of CV information on each.

News

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

August 5 2025

Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.

Bård Vegar Solhjell new chair of the Fritt Ord Board

July 1 2025

Bård Vegar Solhjell (53) has taken over as the new chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Cultural newspaper TBATBA.no and new journalism grants – June 2025

June 19 2025

– Cultural journalism is under pressure. Part of the problem is media outlets failing to cover culture in formats and ways that appeal to people under 30, says Ida Madsen Hestman, editor, freelance critic, and founder of TBATBA.no. Last year, she started the kind of publication she herself would want to read.

The magazine TBA is among those awarded funding in June 2025. See the full list of grants in Norsk Journalistikk.