The government is pumping $55 million into public interest journalism over the next three years.
Photo: RNZ /Dom Thomas
Minister for Broadcasting and Media, Kris Faafoi, launched the fund in Dunedin on Friday.
NZ On Air will administer the contestable funding, which will support projects that fill a public interest service and may otherwise be at risk of not produced without the fund's support.
In the current financial year $10 million will be available, increasing to $25m in 2021/22 and $20m the following year.
Faafoi said grassroots public-interest journalism had been in decline and had struggled for the past decade or more.