What is our mission and how can you support us?
Pod črto (Eng.: ‘The Bottom Line’) is a Slovenian independent non-profit media outlet focusing on investigative reporting, data journalism and in-depth stories. Pod črto was founded in September 2014. The team behind the outlet believes in the power of investigative stories and the importance of public interest journalism.
It is in accordance with our philosophy that we do not charge audiences for access to our content. Therefore our work would not be possible without contributions from our readers, donors and foundations as well as other organizations supporting investigative journalism.
Get in touch with us: info@podcrto.si
Consider supporting our work with a donation
We are covering a broad spectrum of topics, including economic development and entrepreneurship, social and environmental issues. Our mission is to comprehensively explain the pressing issues in our society, as well as finding ways to address and resolve them.
CHANGES FOR THE BETTER
- What is the impact of Pod črto’s investigations? (Pod črto publication, May 2023)
- Interested in collaborating with Pod črto?
Samples of our work
- European election turnout: mandatory voting, age limits and possibility to choose candidates (Published in 2024)
- Fine particles in the air: Ljubljana among the most polluted European cities (Published in 2024)
- The problems with plastics: An introduction (Published in 2023)
- The Problems with Plastics: €16.5 million of taxpayers’ money to dispose of uncollected waste (Part 1) (Published in 2023)
- The Problems with Plastics: Slovenia risks EU fines while the new EPR regulation is under constitutional review (Part 2) (Published in 2023)
- Why are Slovenians unable to get information about the quality of surgeons who operate on them?
- Why doesn’t the Slovenian Financial Administration take action against companies that have not paid taxes in years
- Police informant hacks into online communications of hundreds of individuals
- Working on the edge of poverty: Slovenia’s self-inflicted wound over labour market reform
- Heatwaves: global warming threatens more than 100,000 Slovenes
- Floods in Slovenia: millions of euros worth of damage, for which we are mostly guilty
In March 2015 the Nieman Foundation from Harvard University included Pod črto in the Nieman Reports as the only media for investigative journalism in Slovenia. In May 2015 Shuttleworth Foundation supported our work with their Flash Grant.
Our projects include in-depth analysis of the prevalence and reasons for violent crime in Slovenia, uncovering corruption among Slovenia’s mayors and investigating fraud, mismanagement of European funds, illegal gathering of personal information by Slovenian police (last story), environmental issues, systematic analysis of health system and poverty in Slovenia.
Pod črto team
- Taja Topolovec, Founder, Director, and Editor-in-Chief (Contact: taja.topolovec@podcrto.si)
- Ana Gabrovec, Head of Fundraising and Project Manager (Contact: ana.gabrovec@podcrto.si)
- Metod Blejec, Design and Visual
- Una Rebić, Illustrations and Video
- Dr Aljaž Sluga, Data Analyst
- Lucijan Prelog, Sound Editing and Mixing
- Milan Fras, Audio Editing & Engineering
- Ana Bogataj, Proofreading (currently on leave)
- Tjaša Mislej, Proofreading
- Andrej Čremožnik, Web Development and Maintenance
- Legal and Accounting
podcrto.si is published by a non-profit institute Pod črto, zavod za ustvarjanje kakovostnega novinarstva, Trg komandanta Staneta 8, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia (EU).
podcrto.si is a registered media entity in the media registry of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia under the file number 1907.
Foundations that support our work
Taja Topolovec (founder, director and editor-in-chief) received a Flash Grant awarded by Shuttleworth foundation in May 2015. Read our report.
Anže Voh Boštic (a former investigative journalist at Pod črto) received a year-long grant awarded by Open Society Foundations in December 2015.
In 2017, OSF awarded Pod črto USD 77.529 for the implementation of the project Building up sustainable media model project, which ran from April 2017 to September 2019.
In 2022, Pod črto received EUR 49935.06 or the implementation of a follow up New media models: Towards long-term sustainability of investigative journalism in Slovenia. The project is aimed at strengthening our media model and shall run from July 2022 to June 2023.
Zavod Pod črto is one of the recipients of the new Civitates Independent Public-Interest Journalism Grant. As a grantee, Pod črto will receive core funding for the next three years. Launched in 2020, this is the first Civitates granting cycle dedicated exclusively to independent journalist organisations. Out of hundreds of applicants, 11 organisations from 8 different European countries have been selected as grantees.
Pod črto project titled “Serving Communities” will be implemented in the period from 1.1.2021 to 31.12.2023 and will focus on strengthening Pod črto’s organisational and production model, with emphasis on audience outreach and on sharing of our know-how with other media organisations.
For more information on Civitates Independent Public-Interest Grant and the grantees please follow this link: https://civitates-eu.org/independent-public-interest-journalism/grantees/
From 2015 to 2020 Zavod Pod črto received support that allowed our media to realise our investigative projects. Financial backing came from an annual call put out by the Ministry of Culture. The total amount received is as follows:
134.893,00 € (14.784,00 € / 19.200,00 € / 20.400,00 € / 28.297,00 € / 28.776,00 / 23.436,00 €).
With the support of the United States Embassy of Ljubljana “NGO Small Grants program”, we will be implementing a project titled “Impact Storytelling: Creating a Greater Impact of Watchdog Organisations in Slovenia Through Stories”. The project with an envelope of USD 9.000, will be implemented between November 1st, 2020 and August 31st, 2021.
In 2019 the project »Corporate Undertakers« was implemented in cooperation with Transparency International Slovenia. The project was partially financed by the United States Embassy in Ljubljana.
The project on media ownership in Slovenia is part of a scheme that aims to protect the civil societies supervision role. This project is financed by NEF – Network of European Foundations, in the frame of Civitates initative. The project partners are the Peace Institute and the Slovene Association of Journalists.
Since April 2017, Pod črto is a part of a new project The European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet), which aggregates European media organisations, focusing on data journalism. We received 5.000,00 € for our investigation regarding the upward trend of excessively warm climates in European cities. Within the frame of this project, we collaborated with members of EDJNet while conducting research focusing on the accessibility of public traffic on railways, for which we also received 5.000,00 €.
Within the frame of a co-financed project, SUPPORT: Development of the Innovative Models of Support and Communication for the NGO, the consortium partners are addressing the rapid decline of democracy in Slovenia, defined by the disappearance of space for civil organisations working within the field of human rights, equality and media freedom. The project will be implemented from November 2019 until February 2022 and is co-financed by the Ministry of Public Administration as a public call for development and professionalisation of NGO and voluntary work in 2019.
Memberships:
Pod črto is a member of Global Investigative Journalism Network.
