Data-Driven Journalism in Western Hemisphere Countries that Maintain Diplomatic Relations with Taiwan

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The U.S. Embassy in Paraguay announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a program to cultivate data-driven journalism in the Western Hemisphere for countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Priority Region: Western Hemisphere/Latin America. Program Objectives: In the Western Hemisphere, seven countries maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Publics in these countries thus have less frequent exposure to information about how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) relates to countries with which it maintains official relations. Likewise, journalists have fewer opportunities to develop expertise on the PRC and its relations with other countries, leaving them and the publics they serve relatively more vulnerable to misconceptions and disinformation on related topics. Many publics in Taiwan-recognizing countries maintain idealized views of the benefits that switching to official relations with the PRC would bring. The United States has an opportunity to support partner nations who maintain official relations with Taiwan by addressing this information gap through journalist training that builds investigative skills to reinforce fact-based reporting, journalistic capabilities, and base knowledge about PRC economic practices. Such economic practices include those related to the environment, infrastructure projects, labor practices, compliance with good governance and human rights principles, etc. At the same time, an opportunity exists to strengthen journalists’ resilience to manipulation of information ecosystems and to harassment or other pressure that discourages them from publishing factual content. The goal of this award is to improve access to accurate information in Western Hemisphere Taiwan-recognizing countries about the full impact of diplomatic relations with (in particular, switching to diplomatic relations with) the PRC.