FOCUS N° 21 / NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2009

Parliamentary and local elections are due to be held shortly in Chad, yet prevailing security conditions are such that the elections cannot be organised smoothly. The situation has been observed to be increasingly instable, with a deterioration of human rights and individual freedom. In the run-up to these elections, the media in Chad needs support for several reasons: the media are the primary means of circulating the campaign messages of political parties; they are also in a prime position to lead election debates by giving them media coverage. They thus play a crucial role in civic instruction and training. To fulfil this role, the media must have sufficient resources and responsibility. This is the sphere in which CFI will be operating alongside the GRET.
In the past years, CFI has experimented with and developed several hands-on training courses focussing on the major issues inherent in the media coverage of election campaigns. Three aspects are covered: reporting and election campaigns, tailoring the programme schedule to the monitoring of the campaign and the organisation of election evenings. This same course plan will be applied in Chad.
The first of three training sessions for journalists from Télé Chad was held in November and led by free-lance Chief Editor Yves Bruneau and Fabien Cordier, TV Reporter and Instructor at France 3 Aquitaine.