BIPD to train media personnel on election coverage

Manama, Nov. 3 (BNA): The Bahrain Institute for Political Development (BIPD) will hold a five-day training session for media personnel and journalists in charge of covering the elections at its premises in Umm Al-Hassam. The session, due to start tomorrow, is within BIPD’s “Electoral Programme for the 2018 Elections”, and aims to assert the important role of the media in promoting electoral participation. In a statement, BIPD’s Acting Executive Director, Anwar Ahmed, said that the session aims to inform media persons and journalists about the role of mass media in the political process, in general, and the elections, in particular. It also aims to train them on the mechanisms of media work during the elections, and the conditions that must be met in the media coverage of this process, both legally and technically, he said. Ahmed added that the session includes five different events, including lectures and workshops, all of them aimed at enhancing the participants’ skills in covering the elections, noting that official invitations have sent to newspapers, the Bahrain News Agency and the Information Affairs Ministry to nominate their representatives. The session will feature a lecture on “The Role of the Media in Political Upbringing”, to be delivered by Al-Ajlia University’s Dr. Zuhair Dhaif on November 4, and another on “Media and Women”, to be presented by the Foreign Ministry’s Dr. Wejdan Fahd on November 5. It will also feature three workshops, namely “The Legal Protection for Journalists”, “Objectivity in Electoral Media Coverage”, and “Media Coverage through Social Media Networks” on November 6, 7 and 8, respectively. BIPD’s Acting executive director stressed the importance of the role of the media in consolidating the democratic process, being an essential partner in enhancing awareness, as well as in enlightening society and directing it towards everything that would achieve public interests. He pointed out that the media plays a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the electoral process and promoting an atmosphere of fairness and transparency through undertaking its duties of educating the electorate on ways to practise their democratic rights and covering the electoral process.