Small Grants for Media Programs

The Embassy of the United States in Kazakhstan is seeking applications to strengthen Kazakhstan's media market.

Projects will address one of the following themes:

• Theme 1: Countering fake news and disinformation.
• Theme 2: Promoting professional journalism standards, particularly fact checking, verification, investigative journalism, and fact-based reporting, especially in the regions outside Nur-Sultan and Almaty.
• Theme 3: Promoting innovative approaches for gathering or sharing news, particularly with younger audiences.
• Theme 4: Supporting the development of peer-to-peer exchanges or grassroots networks of professionals for higher quality reporting, ethical and objective journalism.

Program Goal: Strengthen media in Kazakhstan by increasing journalistic professionalism and diminishing the negative impact of disinformation in Kazakhstan.

Project Audiences should be journalists, bloggers, media outlets, media professionals, and editors. Projects should benefit, directly or indirectly, Kazakhstani media consumers, increasing the quality of media content. Programs and projects directly targeting news reporters, journalists, and bloggers will be given preference. Projects are encouraged to target Kazakh-speaking audiences in outlying regions of Kazakhstan.

Projects should aim to achieve one or more of the following objectives:

1. Broaden access to high-quality journalism for young audiences through innovative approaches in gathering or sharing news;
2. Promote professional journalism standards across regional and national media outlets by increasing their professional fact-checking, verification, and investigative journalism skills;
3. Build the capacity of Kazakhstani media outlets including Kazakh-language and regional media outlets, to improve their financial sustainability, secure alternative sources of revenue, and adopt different media-business models and techniques for enlarging their audiences.
4. Support the development of peer-to-peer exchanges or grassroots networks of professionals for higher quality reporting, ethical and objective journalism.
5. Prevent distribution of misinformation and disinformation or mitigate its negative impact through effective campaigns, which can include analysis of media trends, development of communities, or distribution of objective reporting.