This Intermedia project aims to lobby the leadership and ownership of Pakistani media to make reporting of electoral reforms and upcoming local elections a priority and to train journalists at the district level in all four provinces to understand and report election reforms better.
This project will provide information and training to journalists to improve media coverage of electoral reform issues – including the role of different institutions, in particular the legislatures – and coverage of the local elections in Pakistan's four provinces – Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. The local elections are expected in late 2010/early 2011.
This initiative will help improve access to quality information for voters to inform their election decisions through prioritization of coverage of local elections, building capacity of local media to report local elections professionally and providing quantitative and qualitative analysis of local media coverage of electoral reforms and elections.
During the project (August 2010 to March 2011), the following activities will be undertaken:
National Media Consultation Conference
Under this activity, a key media sectoral dialogue will be held on improving standards of elections coverage. It is expected that Pakistan's most experienced and influential media practitioners become advocates for improved coverage of elections issues. Some of Pakistan's best journalists and media organizations will share experiences on coverage of electoral issues and local elections. It is expected that Pakistan's most consumed and popular media will acknowledge need for greater-value, nuanced and issue-based coverage of elections issues. This activity will also help establish the overall project.
Training of Media on Coverage of Electoral Reforms/Actual Elections
• Guidebook book on Key Electoral Issues and Local Elections
Under this sub-activity, a guidebook will be produced on key electoral issues and local elections. This standard resource will become available for journalism trainers, media practitioners and democracy CSOs/NGOs. The trainers will use this resource to train district- based media; Reporters and editors are expected to understand key electoral issues better with this resource; And democracy CSOs/NGOs are expected to become versed with communications guidelines on elections issues.
• Training of Trainers (ToT)
Under this sub-activity, a Training of Trainers (ToT) will be conducted. This will create a cadre of trainers based in Pakistani provinces skilled in election reporting and train local media from all districts of Pakistan's four provinces on electoral reforms and local elections issues.
• Orientation and Training of Journalists
Under this sub-activity, 23 orientation and training workshops will be conducted for journalists from all districts of Pakistan's four provinces. A cadre of 345 journalists will be educated in key electoral issues and skilled in nuanced reporting of local elections.
Draft Code of Conduct on Media Coverage of Local Elections
• Drafting Code of Conduct on Covering Local Elections: The Media Practitioners Perspectives
Under this activity, senior elections reporting experts will meet and draft a code of conduct on media coverage of local elections. The v oluntary code is expected to spur ethical and responsible coverage of local elections.
• Adopting Code of Conduct on Covering Local Elections: The Media Management's Endorsement
Under this activity, media industry leaders will meet and discuss the code of conduct drafted by leading journalists. The m edia industry is expected to endorse this code, embrace it as a subject standard and improve coverage of local elections.
Monitoring Local-Language Coverage of Elections Issues in Local Media
Under this activity, monitoring of local-level media coverage of electoral and local elections issues will be conducted. About 35 weekly media monitoring reports will be produced, identifying media priorities in coverage of electoral and local elections issues in local media.
Implemented by Intermedia, this project is funded by the Germany-based Democracy Reporting International (DRI) with funding from the European Union (EU)
