The Regional Elections Reporting Workshop took place on 3 - 6 February 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa. This event was organised jointly by the Media Institute for Southern Africa, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the IFJ.
The workshop is part of a series of interventions aimed at providing assistance to journalists in the region (and specifically to journalists in those countries who will be holding elections in 2004, namely, Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, Malawi and Angola) to improve their coverage of the electoral process.
This workshop sensitized media practitioners to report in a non-biased and objective manner during the election. It particularly intended to address the following objectives:
· Improve journalists' reporting during elections;
· Raise awareness of political and other influences on elections coverage;
· Raise the level of information and media coverage;
· Enhance media freedom and independence as a fundamental essence of democracy;
· Stimulate media self-monitoring during elections
The workshop had a special emphasis on political reporters from the print and electronic media. Participants included journalists from both private and public media. The workshop was facilitated by leading trainers in the region with a special emphasis on individual country specifics being accommodated for through country-specific sessions with trainers from the respective countries.
The workshop agenda is available here (Word format). The workshop report is currently under preparation.
