Media in Sudan are preparing for elections. Photo: Michelle Betz/IMS

The Sudan Media elections Consortium is launching the first report on the monitoring of Sudanese media coverage at a press conference in Khartoum on 1 March. The monitoring is carried out as part of the Sudan media election project lead by IMS in cooperation with five other media support organisations ahead of the election due in April

The election is the first to be held in both northern as well as southern Sudan in years, and the project aims to enable Sudanese media to provide  professional coverage during the election period.

Monitoring the media coverage

At the conference, which will take place at the Rotana hotel in Khartoum between 10 am - 1pm  on Monday 1 March followed by a reception, the Sudan media and elections consortium will introduce the media monitoring and media training activities.(Click here for more details about event)

The Consortium will also publish the first report on the results of media monitoring which was initiated in northern and southern Sudan in the middle of February. It shows which media are monitored in Sudan, such as Omdurman Radio and Television, but also smaller media outlets such as Liberty FM in Southern Sudan and state radio stations in Darfur, Kordofan and Unity state. Furthermore, the report presents the preliminary findings on the first two weeks of media monitoring in Sudan.

Media monitoring will continue during the time of election campaigning and the election period until a month after Election Day. In order to collect empiric facts about how the media cover the elections, an independent and neutral team of Sudanese monitors in north as well as south will count the number of articles, their length, analyse content, review radio and TV stories about all the candidates from a range of Sudanese media.

The collected data will be analysed according to internationally approved standards aiming to determine to which degree the media are fair and professional. The results can provide a fact-based assessment of whether the media are neutral or biased, how much space or air time is devoted to the various political contestants, and to which extent the media are able to offer a nuanced coverage to its audiences.

- Journalists often do not focus on the difference between the words and terms they use, and the effect their choice of words may have. Media monitoring therefore serves as training for journalists and for the media to avoid biased reporting’’, says Nefisa Elsabagh, the trainer of monitors in Juba.

Media monitor coordinator Osama al Habahbeh explains that media monitoring will have an impact on the media in the longer term:

- It  will be new to Sudan, but experiences from other countries show that media realise after being monitored how important it is to be reliable and they will do their best to practice professional standards and balanced reporting. In Algeria for instance, media monitoring reports are used to advocate for promoting international journalistic standards, he says.

Media training ahead of elections

Media training for elections is not new in Northern Sudan. Media have received various short courses to prepare them for the upcoming elections in April. In the training provided by the Consortium, reporters and journalists not only receive an update on the electoral system, but also receive tools on how to cover the elections in a professional journalistic way where they learn how to be neutral information providers between authorities and the audience.

- The media will lead the process of transformation’’, says Gwado Ador, director of Training and Research at the GOSS Ministry of Information in Juba.

- The media are used to work in one direction, they are dictated by the events. That is not good, the media need to lead the opinion of the Sudanese people, he said.

Amel Ibrahim Saeed, director of Nasaq Journalism Centre in Khartoum says:

- Media training is very important. Most journalists studied journalism in theory, but they need practical lessons. I am confident that with more training, the style of the media can change. 

 In March, about 300 journalists across Sudan will receive training in how to cover the upcoming elections through training seminars and in-house workshops organised by the Sudan Media Elections Consortium.

For more information, contact Ms. Brigitte Sins, Project Manager, Tel. + 249 9072 06812 or + 45 8832 7005, email: bs[snabela]i-m-s.dk  or  britsins[snabela]hotmail.com