The Tyee offering fellowships to promote B.C. investigative reporting

The Tyee, the excellent online newspaper published in Vancouver, has announced a proposal call for $5,000 fellowships for independent journalists who want to do investigative or "solutions reporting" on important issues in British Columbia.

Entries are due Dec. 15, 2007 and will be judged by an independent advisory board who will share only the winning entries with Tyee editors. Winners will be announced Jan. 31, 2008.

The resulting series -- each one consisting of three or more articles of at least 1,000 words each -- will be published on The Tyee, and made available to other publications, pending approval by the authors.

The Tyee Fellowships for Investigative and Solutions Reporting are largely funded by Tyee readers, who last year gave over $21,000 in charitable deductible donations to the paper's foundation, the magazine said. Donation was spurred by an offer from the Endswell Foundation to match the first $15,000 donated, dollar for dollar.

Among the series published already as a result of the fellowships:

• Rough Weather Ahead: How global warming will hit BC by science writer Chris Woods.
• Reconciling with First Nations: How the 'New Relationship' is faring in the Fraser Valley by Sandra Shields .
• No Fares! Time for a free ride on public transit by Dave Olsen.
• Soon to be published: Rhiannon Coppin's investigative series on an international legal tangle centred on a B.C. mining firm.

Information on how to apply, and an application form, can be found here.