U.S.-Tunisia Student Media University Linkage Grant Project: Building a Free and Responsible Press for the Future of Democracy

The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a U.S.-Tunisia Student Media University Linkage Grant Project. Please see full announcement for complete objectives and application requirements. This project will connect American university students and professors running a student media outlet to Tunisian students and professors in a student media outlet and/or a journalism department at a Tunisian university for extended and constructive engagement. The project will contribute to Embassy Tunis’s goals – the consolidation of Tunisia’s democracy and achievement of its economic reform and transition – by supporting the development of a free, responsible and effective media, and by facilitating the development of a viable, ethical, and responsible media industry that creates jobs, combats corruption, and contributes to a more conductive environment for both democratic and economic growth. This project focuses specifically on improving the understanding of Tunisian journalism students – the next generation of Tunisian journalists -- and the professors currently teaching them of the practicalities of a free and independent press, in part by sharing the U.S. model of media ethics; self-regulation; Constitutional protections; media freedom of expression, and defamation-related legislation; sourcing and editing standards; media-government relations; investigative journalism; and media responsibilities in a democracy. The intent is to better equip Tunisia’s press corps to understand its role in a democracy, its responsibilities to citizens, the appropriate relationship to government, the kinds of media regulations that are (and are not) in compliance with democratic principles, and the practical implementation of these issues in the daily work of journalism.