NEWS - Media Freedom Rapid Response Mechanism

Expected Outcome:

This action is expected to provide practical help to protect journalists under threat, including concrete tools such as advice and legal support as well as offering shelter and logistical assistance thereby enabling the targeted journalists to continue pursuing their professional activities. This can include financial support when needed. The project will also organise visits to affected countries. Anti-impunity action shall be supported through advocacy. The tools used will be adjusted to accommodate individual needs on a case-by-case basis. Violations of press and media freedom will be systematically and comprehensively monitored across the EU, countries participating in the Creative Europe Programme and candidate countries in order to ensure the provision of reliable and comprehensive information on such violations to the general public as well as to the European institutions. The monitoring should be geared to ensure early warnings about violations. The alerts related to EU, countries participating in the Creative Europe Programme and candidate countries will be systematically published on a dedicated website. Regular reports listing all alerts and identifying main trends will also be published. Such monitoring will generate data and insights beyond the scope or reach of several existing monitoring tools, covering, in particular, risks to media freedom and pluralism as well as selected serious incidents and authorities’ reactions to such incidents.

Objective

Within the specific objective of promoting policy cooperation and innovative actions supporting all strands of the Programme, including the promotion of a diverse and pluralistic media environment, media literacy and social inclusion, the priorities of the cross-sectoral strand shall include:

• to promote cross-sectoral activities aiming at adjusting to the structural changes faced by the media sector, including enhancing a free, diverse, and pluralistic media environment, quality journalism and media literacy including in the digital environment.

The Commission’s annual Rule of Law Report refers to physical and online threats and attacks on journalists as a persistent issue across Europe. In September 2021 the Commission adopted a Recommendation on ensuring the protection, safety and empowerment of journalists and other media professionals in the European Union. This action proposes sustainable funding for projects with a focus on legal and practical assistance to journalists in the EU and elsewhere, including safety and cybersecurity training for journalists and diplomatic support.

Scope:

• Design and manage a Europe-wide rapid response mechanism to support media freedom and journalists' safety, covering all EU Member States, countries participating in the Creative Europe Programme and candidate countries;
• Provide legal and practical support to journalists and other media practitioners in need;
• Organise advocacy missions to locations where journalists are under threat;
• Monitor the state of media freedom in the EU Member States, countries participating in the Creative Europe Programme and candidate countries;
• Organise awareness raising campaigns in the field of media freedom and safety of journalists;
• Ensure communication and dissemination activities;
• Monitor and evaluation the action.

Type of action: CREA Project Grants

Programme period: 2021 - 2027

Priorities: DigitalAgenda, AI

"> Conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: Proposal page limit and layout

Described in the call document .

Proposal page limits and layout: Described in the call document and in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

2. Eligible countries

Described in the call document .

3. Other eligibility conditions

Described in the call document .

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion

Described in the call document .

5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes

Described in the call document .

5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds

Described in the call document .

5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement

Described in the call document .

Publication of the call: 20 October 2026

Deadline for submitting applications: 27 January 2027 17:00 (Brussels time).

Evaluation period: February – May 2027

Information to applicants: July 2027

Signature of grant agreement: October 2027

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants

Described in the call document .

Call document and annexes:

Call document . Application form templates Standard application form (CREA MEDIA) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System Model Grant Agreements (MGA) CREA MGA

Additional documents:

CREA Annual Work Programmes CREA Regulation 2021/818 EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEA