Media Elections
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Media Elections Journal December / 2013 Edition& Number 3 Publication created in the framework of the UNESCO Project ‘Enhancing Professional and Accurate Media on the Electoral Process in Jordan’, funded by the European Union Challenges of elections reporting in the Arab region debated in Amman diverse backgrounds and with eporters from Tunis, Egypt, R variable media expertise, openly Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and discuss a very specific aspect of Jordan have met in Amman at a media coverage, which is related debate forum to exchange their directly to elections; a novel experience and identify measures to journalistic reporting topic which improve their work during electoral has gained considerable weight processes. The forum is part of recently in light of political reform the Media and Elections Project, scenarios that spread across the implemented by UNESCO Amman region for the past few years”, Office throughout 2013 and funded commented Rut G. Sobrino, Project by the European Union. Manager of the Media and Elections "This is a unique event, as for the Project at UNESCO Amman. first time in Jordan reporters from (continues in page 3) Jordan Media Institute trains media students Media students from a number of Jordanian universities have attended a workshop to analyze the relevance of students’ councils. Topics such as debating skills and hate speech were included in the agenda. (continues in page 8) Also in this edition… Interview Interview Article Ayman Ayoub, Patricia Pennetier, Programme Launch of the Road Map Director of IDEA Manager for Human Rights Strategy and Good Gover-nance at the EU Delegation to Jordan page 5 page10 page12 Content Follow Us: https://www.facebook.com/enhancing.professional.media.on.elections 3 Arab reporters meet in Jordan to exchange expertise and to discuss professionalism in the journalistic coverage of elections 5 Interview to Mr Ayman Ayoub ,Director for North Africa region at IDEA Institute 9 Jordan Media Institute trains media students on the relevance of participation on electoral processes 10 Interview to Ms Patricia Pennetier, Programme Manager, Human Rights and Good Governance at the EU Delegation to Jordan Follow Us: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/amman/projects/enhancing- professional-and-accurate-media-on-the-electoral-process-in-jordan/ 12 The Road Map Strategy launched in Jordan Editor: Rut Gomez Sobrino, Project Manager Email: [email protected] Assistant: Shaden Abu Al Haijaa, Project Assistant Email: [email protected] Design: 4P’s Advertising Agency Copyright: UNESCO This publication has been created with the funds of the European Union in the framework of the Project ‘Enhancing Professional and Accurate Media in the Electoral Process in Jordan’ 2 article Arab reporters meet in Jordan to exchange expertise and to discuss professionalism in the journalistic coverage of elections While the two-day forum stands as one of the last activities marking the end of the Project, at the opening session Ms Patricia Pennetier, from the EU Delegation to Jordan, announced the EU’s continuous support to media through its partnership with UNESCO through a new project planned to kick off in 2014. The first presentation was led by Ms. Sanam Shantyaei, from France 24, a journalist who covered electoral processes in a number of countries, including Iran. She shared with the of elections, coverage during the backgrounds of candidates while at participants a useful formula for election day, and the final results. In the same time capturing the existing successfully covering elections. This her interesting lecture, she addressed society momentum, which in turn formula combines the profiles of the the role of professional journalism demonstrates the implications that candidates, the campaigning, the during elections and emphasized the one party or another has on the mood of the society, the features ahead need to inform the public about the people. Journalism in times of transformation mentioned major challenges of define overall measures to facilitate he role of professional media T journalists covering elections in her their work and to improve its quality. was also highlighted by Mr Ayman country, mainly lack of the culture "There are violations in the electoral Ayoub, Director for North Africa associated to election polling. For systems happening all over the region at IDEA Institute. According the coming 2014 elections "I do not world and it is the responsibility of to him, some of the challenges that envision any changes for the better in the journalist to report on those," journalists face during electoral relation to the professional coverage commented Mr Mohammed Hassan, processes are violence, ill treatment of elections in Egypt because we based in Ramallah and part of the of minorities, lack of women have to reconsider the way we, the Thomson Reuters team. participation and observation of journalists, report in general," she monitoring missions. Working in said. journalism entails all of the above; therefore the responsibility of Jordan and the Parliamentary and journalists takes a new dimension municipal elections that took place in the current momentum that the in 2013 were also discussed in the region is undergoing. Mr Ayoub forum. Mr Daoud Kuttab, Director also mentioned the cancellation of Community Media Network, of Bassem Youssef programme in shared his views on the coverage Egyptian TV. "I am afraid that we of recent elections in the country are facing a state of silencing media and mentioned the need to continue criticism," he said. working to improve the quality of Journalism in Jordan. The presentation of the Egypt case was preceded by high expectations Though the landscapes presented in from the audience explained by the the first day of the forum were highly country’s role in the Arab region. Ms varied, all presenters emphasized Mai Shams, an Egyptian journalist the common challenges they face formerly working for BBC, when covering elections in order to 3 article Covering elections in fragmented contexts The second day of the forum, the cases of Lebanon, Iraq and Tunis, were addressed. Raghida Bahnam, from Al Arabiya channel, and based in Dubai, compared her various ex- periences covering elections in the United States, United Kingdom and Lebanon and underlined the right to access information as the key dif- ference between countries, when comparing Journalism in different contexts. "My experience in Leba- non was quite different from the one I had in the UK and in the US; in Lebanon most of the concerns of the society such as the rise in the prices of the electricity bill were not Iraq, El Jezairy compared the elec- improve this exercise. Mr Simon addressed in the campaign and in tions in Iraq in 2005 and in 2009 and Haselock, Senior Associate at Al- many cases I could not even contact described how social fragmentation bany shared his experience in elec- the candidates," she said. and conflict affected the process and tions in a variety of countries, such “There is no democracy if there is no the media coverage. as Bosnia and Iraq emphasizing the freedom of the media," commented Safety of the journalists operating relevance of professional and inde- Ms Magda Abu-Fadil, Director of in Iraq was at the core of the pres- pendent media in countries in tran- Media Unlimited in Lebanon, "but entation of El Jezairy who stated sition. "Elections are a component we also need transparency." Abu- that "Iraq has the highest number of of democratization processes, but Fadil tackled the relevance of also journalists killed, equal to the num- not the only one; there is still lack of addressed social media tools devel- ber of reporters assassinated during understanding of the concept of de- oped during the electoral processes the 20 years of the Vietnam war." He mocracy and its implications as well and mentioned initiatives such as brought the room to deep reflection as of the role of media," he assessed. www.entekhabet.com, a satirist blog when he told on specific cases of The Summit was concluded by the about the activities of the electoral colleagues of him who were killed presentation of Mr Achref Maktouf, campaign where users had the op- in Iraq when he was the Chief Editor President of the International Center portunity to interact and share their of Aswat al Iraq (Voices of Iraq), the for Democracy and Election Moni- views. first independent news agency cre- toring in Tunis, who gave a clear "In Iraq we envision the same issues ated in the country. overview of the media coverage that I am hearing here in this forum; The forum served as well to present of elections in his country, the first despite the huge number of media to the participants the Road Map to experienced the so-called Arab outlets -168 newspapers and 28 TV Strategy, the recent research con- Spring phenomenon. As in previous stations- there was lack of inde- ducted in the framework of the UN- presentations, lack of independence pendence as well as lack of interest ESCO Media and Elections Project of media covering elections was and no knowledge about electoral that includes interviews and ques- a major challenge underlined. "In processes in the society as in other tionnaires shared with the Jordanian Tunis, public media has been un- neighboring countries. As so, a ma- media community. The document, der the control of the Government, jor role of the media was to increase developed by Albany Associates, something that made possible the awareness about the importance of partners in the Media and Elections