Bulgaria International Journalism Fellowship

BIJF Small Grants BIJF Newsstand About Standards Team Principles Objectives

About

The Bulgarian International Journalism Fellowship (BIJF) is a groundbreaking initiative aimed at telling stories of Bulgaria’s democratic journey to a global audience. A key objective is to bring more international attention to Bulgaria’s democracy – and the global stakes in its potential – through the work of independent journalists.

Our program will fund and deploy up to three independent journalists as Senior Fellows working full time, as well as fund a series of individual projects, to produce great news, features and investigative articles in English to be pitched to major international publications. Both the Fellows and the individual projects will be supported by a cadre of students from AUBG’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications as BIJF Student Fellows.

*The BIJF is funded by the America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF), which is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonpolitical American grant-making foundation working in partnership with Bulgarians to strengthen the country’s private sector and related democratic institutions.

ABF builds on the success of the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund, an investment fund created in 1991 by the U.S. Congress with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development. For more information, please visit us4bg.org.

Project Standards

BIJF hopes to strengthen Bulgarian journalism as a profession and as a practice by creating a network of training, community and mutual support within the industry and from the broader community.

BIJF journalism will be based on:

BIJF’s journalism will be independent from funding sources and other external influences. Its stories will be developed within the fellowship and executed with the Western news organizations that buy them. That said, BIJF is open to all tips, leaks, story ideas and potential sources.
We’ll follow standard professional practices of fairness, including regarding the right of reply. All subjects, whether or not they agree with the story as a whole, should be able to recognize their point of view within it.
The stories will be well-supported and based on authenticated documents and credible sources, who, except in rare cases, will be on-the-record. We’ll show our work.
BIJF will dig deep into important issues, pursue them to their logical conclusion and spend the time it takes to uncover the truth as best we can determine it.
BIJF favors direct sentences in the active voice, in the American style, with clear attribution. We will always provide the necessary context. We aim to produce the best-written English-language journalism in Europe.
BIJF will fix mistakes asap and apologize when appropriate. BIJF relies on feedback and intends to be in close communication with readers and supporters.

The BIJF Team

Joanna Elmy

Senior Fellow

Read bio

Spas Spasov

Senior Fellow

Read bio

Sevdalina Yaneva

Project Manager

Janina Ormanova

Junior Fellow

Radoslav Stanimirov

Junior Fellow

Spasiela Gizdova

Junior Fellow

Viktoria Bozhinova

Junior Fellow

Emily Kutelia

Junior Fellow

Project Principles

Strengthen Democratic Institutions

The work of our fellows will lead to better informed public discourse, greater civic engagement, and pressure for policy changes.

Build Resilience Against Disinformation

Journalists trained through the fellowship will help to inoculate societies against the corrosive effects of false narratives and ensuring that truth prevails.

Promote Press Freedom

By highlighting the work of our fellows and advocating for their protection, the fellowship will contribute to a global movement for press freedom.

Inspire Future Generations

Through education, mentorship, and example, the fellowship will inspire students and future generations to pursue investigative journalism with integrity, courage, and a commitment to democracy.

Project Objectives

Provide resources for talented reporters to create compelling original stories – features, profiles, investigations – in the public interest.
Policy reforms, public awareness, community empowerment, and accountability for leaders in both the public and private sectors, in Bulgaria and elsewhere.
The BIJF is building a community of journalists in and outside Bulgaria to provide mutual support, ideas, resources and fellowship. To enhance the capacity and expertise of both Senior and Student Fellows in investigative and international journalism.
The BIJF will introduce Bulgaria’s top journalists to major Western news organization and familiarize the latter with the country and its journey; the project will also foster cross-border collaboration, international knowledge-sharing and training with partners in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere.
The BIJF will combat disinformation by creating a space for reliable, fair, high-quality journalism that address Bulgaria’s political, social, and economic challenges.
We’ll assess the impact and effectiveness of the fellowship program and its activities.
At a time of bureau-closings and cutbacks in the media industry, the BIJF hopes to create a model for bolstering high-quality reporting from under-covered regions for the English-speaking Western press.
To publish stories in select international outlets to reach a wide and diverse global audience, reaching international political leaders, policymakers, diplomats, influencers, and decision-makers.

BIJF Small Grants

Open to journalists, storytellers, and media creators from around the world.

Learn more and apply

BIJF Newsstand