SIERRA LEONE: UN RADIO EXPANDS COVERAGE WITH 40 NEW REPORTERS DURING ELECTIONS

SIERRA LEONE: UN RADIO EXPANDS COVERAGE WITH 40 NEW REPORTERS DURING ELECTIONS
New York, Aug 1 2007 5:00PM
Radio broadcasts on Sierra Leone's upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections will be considerably enhanced thanks to the recruitment of 40 new reporters covering the polling process, the United Nations Integrated Office in the country (UNIOSIL) reported today.

Drawn from all over the country, the temporary staff have just completed a two-day training workshop in Freetown, organized by UNIOSIL's Public Information Office, on balanced and fair elections reporting.

The training involved coverage of political parties' rallies, reporting on voting, counting, tallying and election results, the historical importance of the 2007 polls and gender perspectives.

The temporary radio broadcasters were also briefed on the Political Parties Code of Conduct and the Sierra Leone media code of conduct on objective and fair electoral reporting, UNIOSIL said in a news release.

The new reporters, 16 of whom are women, are all expected to file their reports from 3 to 17 August.

Voters in the small West African nation, which emerged in 2002 from a decade-long civil war, will go to the polls on 11 August.
2007-08-01 00:00:00.000

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