Earmarked funding for Norwegian journalism

August 9 2019

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.

The call for applications has six deadlines for applications during the year. The next deadline is 10 May 2019, at 3 p.m. Applications should be submitted to the Fritt Ord Foundation’s application centre.

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.

Application requirements
The initiative is completely open when it comes to topics. When applying for project support, journalists, editors and editorial staffs are free to choose the topics and contents of their projects. The Foundation’s goal is to help facilitate projects that can become important parts of the social debate for as many people as possible.

The projects are intended to target the general public. 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. Editorial boards or individuals may apply, 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.

We aspire insofar as possible to support work on the content to be published, while providing less support for operating expenses, technical development projects and the acquisition of equipment.

We ask that applicants submit project outlines that are 3 to 5 pages long, and as specific as possible. Project outlines should include a schedule, a description of the content (e.g. in the form of a list of articles or a publication plan/schedule) and a list of project team members with a five-line resume for each of them. We also ask for an attachment detailing other sources of funding, if any, as well as own efforts and an overall project budget.

Freelancers are asked to provide a brief verification of their publishing agreement and the level of remuneration provided by the editorial board(s) that will be publishing the project. Please note that an allocation is intended to be in addition to a fee, and that funds you receive from Fritt Ord are not to be used to reduce the level of the fee you receive.

Label the application “Norwegian Journalism” in the title field. For guidance with the application process, contact Executive Director Knut Olav Åmås at knut.olav.amas@frittord.no.

In addition to the funding set aside for Norwegian Journalism, grants will be made to central, journalism-related fields such as documentary films, documentary photos and journalistic factual prose. These will continue to be important priorities for Fritt Ord in the ordinary rounds of applications and they are not under the purview of this scheme.

  • See here for list of the approximately 200 projects received support under the scheme Quality journalism in a new era – 2015-2017, the Foundation’s most recent journalism campaign.

  • Link to the press release about the initiative from September 2017.

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.