Deadline: July 12, 2024.

This is Rappler’s fourth cycle of the #FactsMatter Journalism Fellowship Program and the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship Program. Selected fellows will receive monthly stipends as part of the four-month program.

The fellowship programs aim to equip fellows with the tools needed to fight disinformation and effectively cover disruptive digital technologies like generative AI, in both local and international spaces. Specifically:

• The Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship, via the Rappler-JNBF partnership, is being offered to local journalists in honor of the late investigative reporter Aries Rufo, who wrote for Newsbreak and Rappler on various issues, such as the church, judiciary, politics, and elections.
• The #FactsMatter Fellowship seeks to provide Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) newsrooms and their chosen journalist representatives the opportunity to better understand digital media, their impact on conversations about critical issues, how these could be manipulated, and how this manipulation can be prevented. The goal is to enrich coverage of these issues.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship is open to the following:

• Filipino campus journalists enrolled in an accredited college or university and an active member of a campus publication or campus outlet at the time of application.
• Filipino community journalists who are either freelancers or employed by a media organization (print, television, or online) at the time of application.  

The #FactsMatter Fellowship is open to:

• Southeast Asian journalists working in ASEAN newsrooms (in print, television, or online), with an excellent command of the English language. The newsroom should nominate a reporter and an editor who should be working together on a final long-form project.
• At least 6 campus journalists, 4 community journalists, and 3 Southeast Asian journalists will be selected for this cycle’s fellowship programs. 

BENEFITS

Filipino fellows will receive the following monthly stipends:

• Student/campus journalists: P8,000
• Local community journalists: P17,000

ASEAN fellows and their newsrooms will receive a grant in two tranches:

• International fellows: Total of US$5,000

APPLICATION

Interested applicants must complete the application form and submit the following as attachments:

For student/campus journalists

• Endorsement letter from a journalism professor/faculty member attesting to the student’s skills and capabilities
• Updated one-page résumé

For local community journalists

• Updated one-page résumé
• For regular employees: an endorsement letter from an affiliated newsroom/organization indicating that 1) payment of salaries or fees for the applicant will continue during the fellowship, and 2) expressing commitment by the media organization of the accepted fellow to cross-publish the final long-form story output of its journalist fellow
• For freelancers: an endorsement letter from an editor of a reputable media organization that will commit to cross-publish the final long-form story output

For Southeast Asian journalists

• Updated one-page résumés of the reporter and editor working together
• Endorsement letter from the applicant’s newsroom supervising editor. The letter should also indicate that 1) the senior editor commits to work with the nominated journalist applicant during the program and 2) guarantees that their affiliated newsroom will publish the final long-form story produced by the reporter-editor tandem
• Must have a valid passport that would permit travel to the Philippines for the onsite training in September 2024

All letters should be addressed to Chay F. Hofileña, Rappler Investigative Editor and Training Head.

Find more information on the OFFICIAL LINK