Ghanaian journalists and media organizations still have the opportunity to access funding to undertake investigative reporting, under the Programme for Africa Investigative Reporting (PAIR).The model was initiated by Danish Association of Investigative Journalists (FUJ) with sponsorship from the International Media Support in collaboration with the Media Foundation for West Africa, to facilitate the development and publication of investigative stories.Ghana is one of five West African countries benefitting from the pilot phase of the programme. Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast are the other countries.Coordinator for PAIR Ghana, Emmanuel Dogbevi, says the deadline for applications has been extended to September 15, 2011 to give room for more media houses and individual journalists to apply for financial support to “uncover corruption, to uncover wrongdoing, to uncover new things, any new information that has to be in the public domain”.According to him, the initial call for application has been disappointing because only a couple of applications were received. Mr. Dogbevi is therefore encouraging Ghanaian journalists to take advantage of the funding opportunity because “the journalists are not writing the reports for PAIR, they’re doing it for their media organizations. PAIR is only providing the funding to facilitate the investigation and to help them conclude it”.To receive support, the investigative piece have to meet the certain criteria, which includes an investigation that reveals new, important information of obvious public interest, professional journalistic and ethical standards, and subjecting the collated material to legal advice before publishing to avoid unnecessary conflict with the law.The legal advisors will be appointed by and paid for by PAIR.Journalists working on radio, print and online are eligible to apply.