Securing journalists during election coverage, and revealing the unreal observation are the most important recommendations

Demands to take into account the difference between the needs of news sites and printed newspapers in the information provided by the Mission

The Local-international joint mission to observe Egypt's parliamentary elections 2015 held an Induction and Consultative Meeting with a group of journalists and media professionals entitled "Together For Fair Elections" on Fridays and Saturday 27th & 28th February 2015. The meeting offered a presentation from the Mission representatives of the organizational structure of the international and local members; the mission work mechanisms; the objectives it seeks to accomplish; as well as the types of reports and statements issued by the parliamentary elections observatory affiliated to the mission; and provided a detailed explanation of the sources of information the mission rely on and distribution of the human resources of the observatory including field observers, recipient of the field statements, authors of the reports, translators, publication officials, and administrative assistants. The meeting included the conduct of working groups for journalists and media professionals in order to come up with recommendations related to overcoming the challenges facing the media during coverage of the electoral process; the role of the election observation missions in these challenges, how to strengthen the relationship between civil society and the media in order to enhance the integrity of the electoral process and ensure that the correct information have been delivered to the public opinion. The working groups came out with a good package of practical and applicable recommendations, including: the need for civil society organizations to lobby for the provision of life insurance for field reporters during the coverage of the electoral competition; the need to provide a distinctive uniform for reporters to distinguish them and thus prevent being targeted during the election conflicts; the importance of providing information in the form of a statistical summary for the media and journalists during the polling days and to reduce the narrative data in line with the fast pace of events; and the importance to differentiate in the provision of material from the civil society organizations between news site requirements and the requirements of the printed newspaper. The working groups also suggested the importance of civil society organizations to train journalists and media professionals on the integrity and freedom standards of the general election, to be able to shed light on the abuses and irregularities representing a violation of the legal rules. The discussions during the meeting highlighted a range of negative aspects that should refused by civil society organizations and the media such as "elections observation forgers" which are small organizations used to issue statements and testimony on what was observed during the election process without the existence of any real field observers on the ground, they often rely on news theft from the issued and published statements by other organizations, taking advantage of the lack of awareness of some the editors and inexperience to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources with respect to the electoral affairs. The media professionals and journalists warned that this issue could adversely affect the credibility of civil society and media as a major pillar of electoral knowledge sources. The International-Local Joint Mission to Observe the Parliamentary Elections – Egypt 2015 is a coalition composing the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD); the International Institute for Peace, Justice and Human Rights (IIPJHR) and their local partner Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights (MAAT), in addition to 31 local NGOs.