Lebedev's launch Journalism foundation

Former Indy Editor Simon Kelner is to head a new not-for-profit organisation that aims to promote, develop and sustain free and fair journalism across the world.

The Journalism Foundation funded by the Lebedev family,owners of the Independent and the London Evening Standard.

The fund is launching with two initiatives.

The first is a partnership with the department of journalism at London’s City University which aims to establish the first practical training courses for journalists in Tunisia.

The second sees The Journalism Foundation supporting a grass roots website in an effort to increase engagement in local politics in Stoke-on-Trent.

Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev writing about the fund says that

Across the Western world, media institutions have been convulsed by a financial crisis. There is a sharp fall in advertising revenue, while printing and distribution costs rise. The internet has starved companies of income, turning the old business model on its head. The rise of social media and the free, anarchic flow of information in the digital age has also presented us with new challenges, especially on defending privacy, reforming libel laws, and co-operating across borders.

The fund has pledged to

fund projects whose purpose is to increase engagement in civic society at a local or national level

will only back initiatives that use journalism as an instrument for the public good

will support investigative journalists working to expose truth in dangerous conditions.

will help journalists exploit new-found liberties in countries where press freedom has been an alien concept.

will help develop community journalism initiatives and will give grants to suitable projects

will give bursaries to individual journalists and will run an annual award