An update on the Fellowship & COVID-19
In light of the ongoing challenges caused by COVID-19, we have received a number of queries and concerns about this year’s One World Media Fellowship. As such, we wanted to reach out to clarify a few things.
First of all, the Fellowship is going ahead. We’re here to give you the backing to keep telling your stories.
One World Media will continue to champion diverse voices and stories from around the world, and support our global community of aspiring filmmakers and journalists through our Fellowship programme.
How will the Fellowship change?
The Fellowship is a remote programme that provides support through email, calls, webinars and video conferencing, and will continue to operate in this way.
We are very aware that most projects are or will be affected by the current circumstances, given the long term uncertainty. Travel might be restricted for months to come, and stories are likely to change along with other global developments. As such, we want to assure you that for those selected for the 2020 Fellowship, there will be increased flexibility with regards to reporting schedules and delivery dates, and we will be open to accommodating changes in stories where necessary.
That said, it is still important that you have access to the story you are pitching. Your pitch must be more than just an idea. If granted the funds and the Fellowship, we expect that you will be able to begin reporting when safe to do so, and have confirmed participants. Under current circumstances, we will be more flexible with our consideration during selection. However, we recommend that you include a considered plan for how you are going to tell the story.
We understand that it is difficult to pitch a project when you can’t be sure that you will be able to deliver it. We recommend thinking of this Fellowship as a 1 to 1.5 year programme and submit your proposal(s) accordingly.
We will continue monitoring travel advice.
The safety of our Fellows is our top priority. Therefore, we follow the FCO advice to determine the safety of travel for our Fellows and do not support projects in hostile environments. However, due to the global spread of the virus, at the moment most countries fall under FCO’s ‘advise against essential travel’ warning.
Therefore, we will be continuously monitoring the safety of international travel, and assess each project on an individual basis. We hope that in the coming months, it will again be possible to operate safely around the world and produce media, in one way or another. So we encourage applicants to still submit their proposals, but plan their reporting for late 2020 or early 2021.
This is a difficult and challenging time for us all, and we hope to continue to support our global community of storytellers wherever we can. If you have any further concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
We look forward to receiving your applications!
OWM Team