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

More than 300 journalists and media houses across Sudan will be trained to cover elections by the Sudan Development Initiative (SUDIA) and five other national and international organisations in the lead-up to Sudan's nationwide elections in April 2010

For many Sudanese journalists, reporting the country's first multi-party elections in 24 years will be a major challenge. Most have never had the opportunity to cover elections before and are not familiar with Sudan's complex electoral process. The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that the population will be dealing with no less than 12 ballot papers on Election Day. Fair and accurate reporting will therefore play a crucial role in ensuring transparency on the road to sustainable peace and democracy in Sudan.

The initiative offers journalists in both Northern and Southern Sudan an opportunity to participate in three-day workshops where they will learn about the electoral process, the skills of conflict sensitive journalism and how to cover elections in an unbiased and professional manner. For editorial teams in media houses around the country, in-house training will be offered on how to organise election coverage from management level through to the newsroom, layout and marketing. 

- With the knowledge that the majority of the Sudanese media never covered elections before, it is crucial that journalists know about the electoral system and more importantly, how to report on it in a professional way, says project manager Brigitte Sins, International Media Support (IMS).  

The Media and Elections Project also includes monitoring of Sudanese media's coverage of the election during the election campaign. Neutral Sudanese monitors trained by international monitoring experts will map out the space, airtime and content quality devoted to different political parties and themes by up to 40 print and broadcast media houses.

The findings of media monitoring thus enable journalists to reflect on the way in which they cover elections. This, in combination with conflict sensitive journalism training can improve journalists' ability to navigate between their choices of words and terms and thus help prevent media from unintentionally fuelling tension.

Abdel-Rahman El Mahdi of the Sudan Development Initiative (SUDIA) added:

- The challenge is to ensure that the knowledge gained from training workshops is used in the everyday work context and that ethical reporting practices become institutionally rooted. Also, the media in Sudan receive very little feedback by way of independent or neutral bodies on their performance measured against internationally recognised standards. The Media and Elections Project was conceived to address these challenges both in the short and long term.

The Media and Elections Project, funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is implemented by the Sudan Media and Elections Consortium, a group of national and international organisations with expertise in media support. The group comprises the Sudanese Development Initiative (SUDIA), International Media Support (IMS), the Arab Working Group for Media Monitoring (AWG), Fojo Media Institute, Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), and Osservatorio di Pavia.

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