Brigitte Alfter and Ides Debruyne are the initiators of the “Journalismfund.eu”. Founded in 2008, this organization promotes European collaborative research and data journalism.
Brigitte Alfter (Denmark) and Ides Debruyne (Belgium) are the initiators of “journalismfund.eu”. The organization, founded in 2008, promotes European, collaborative investigative journalism through scholarships and the European Data Harvest Conference for data and investigative journalism. Alfter and Debruyne saw the need for thorough research on European issues and wanted to liberate journalists from national borders impeding their work. The scholarships granted by the organization allow journalists to cooperate in multinational research teams. Typical examples of transnational issues are human trafficking, abuse of EU funding or illegal arms trade. Brigitte Alfter worked as Brussels correspondent for the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information and is a founding member of the Danish “Scoop” project for the promotion of investigative journalism, especially in Eastern Europe. Ides Debruyne is the Managing Director of “journalismfund.eu” and teaches journalism at the University of Ghent.