Applications Invited for UN Ocean Conference 2025 Fellowships

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About the Organization

Created in 2004, EJN is now a truly global network of reporters and media outlets in virtually every region of the world.

Environmental and climate change reporting is now more urgent than ever, but journalists face myriad and mounting challenges in covering these topics. The media industry is in crisis, and misinformation is on the rise. Reporters working for cash-strapped news agencies often don't have the resources to research a story properly; freelancers, even less so. That’s where EJN comes in.

About the Fellowship

In the last decade, many promising steps have been taken to protect ‘the lungs of the planet’—our ocean—which produces most of the oxygen we need to breathe and is the world’s largest carbon sink. We have seen individual countries take action. Earlier this year, Greece was the first country in Europe to announce a ban on bottom trawling in all of its national marine parks and marine protected areas , and so far 15 countries have ratified the UN’s High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect marine biodiversity in the two-thirds of ocean waters that do not fall under national jurisdiction.

Countries made important strides at the last UN Ocean Conference held in Portugal in 2022: outlining new guidelines on blue markets and over 50 high-level commitments and pledges covering scientific cooperation, monitoring and surveillance of ecosystems and regulation of IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing.

The next UN Ocean Conference , scheduled to be held in Nice, France, from June 9-13, 2025, will be a vital inflection point to accelerate progress on the conservation and sustainable management of the ocean. 

These summits are focused on supporting the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14), which is to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”

Although nearly 3 billion people rely on the ocean for their primary source of protein, and millions worldwide depend on coastal and marine ecosystems for their livelihoods, many of the decisions and action plans made to protect the ocean are decided between government officials , at such high-level conferences which are not accessible to the public.

It is only through trusted, transparent and accessible journalism that such important coverage can set sail and reach vulnerable communities in every continent.

The road to a sustainable future for our blue planet remains fraught, ; and the public needs to be better informed about how their countries are—or aren’t—addressing overfishing, acidification and potentially, deep-sea mining, among several other threats to the ocean, which is home to 260,000 known species.

As part of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network’s UN Ocean Project, we are pleased to announce a new fellowship program for journalists interested in attending and reporting from the United Nations Ocean Conference 2025, with support from the Bloomberg Ocean Fund. This edition of the conference will be focused on mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the fellowship, the applicant must:

• Be a professional journalist from or representing an established media house and reporting from any country with a coast. Applicants from countries in the Mediterranean region and low- and middle-income countries are especially encouraged to apply.
• Have previous experience reporting on ocean issues (examples include threats to the ocean such as, IIU fishing, the impacts of algal bloom, acidification and pollution as well as innovative and actionable solutions to protect the ocean, such as technological advances to monitor ocean crimes, new multilateral agreements such as the Plastics treaty and High Seas treaty, funding mechanisms such as blue bonds, and policy measures such as Marine Protected Areas, fishing quotas, etc.
• Clearly indicate the kinds of stories they will seek to pursue while covering the conference.
• Be available for the conference in Nice from 9 until 13 June 2025, arriving on 7 June and departing on 14 June.
• Have a good command of the English language.
• Share an up-to-date resume/CV.
• Provide a letter of support from an editor, producer, or supervisor who can confirm that your news reports will be published or broadcast in an established media outlet. Freelancers are welcome to apply but must provide a letter of support from a media outlet for which they intend to report.
• Provide recent, relevant and journalistic work samples which focus on ocean issues (preferably covering ocean governance/policies related to marine protection). These can be uploaded as documents or web links. Stories can be in any language as long as they are accompanied by a short English synopsis. Stories must have clear bylines and should have been published in the last 12 months.

How to Apply

If you have an existing account, you'll need to log in. If not, you must register by clicking “Log in” on the top right of the page and clicking the “Sign up” link at the bottom of the page that opens. Click here for detailed instructions on how to create an account, and here for detailed instructions on how to reset your password.

Deadline: 15 January, 2025, 11:59 PM (Europe/Warsaw)

For more information please check the Link

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Tags Environment and Sustainability Journalism/ Reporting Others