The First Conference for Media and Elections started in Tripoli

Libyan Cloud News Agency – Tripoli

The First Conference for Media and Elections started at the headquarters of the High National Election Commission (HNEC) in Tripoli on Monday.

The HNEC, in cooperation with the College of Arts and Media and the International Organization for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Libya, organized the conference under the theme “Partner – Monitor – Mediator”.

The program of the first day of the conference, which lasts for two consecutive days, included three scientific sessions in which a number of scientific papers were presented. The presenters talked about international standards and global experiences of media coverage in elections, the performance of the media during elections in Libya, an evaluation of the experience of elections in Libya after 2011, election articles in the Libyan press, the role of opinion writers in promoting political participation, and the effectiveness of the media in consolidating the culture of accepting election results in Libya,

In his speech, the head of the HNEC, Imad Al-Sayeh, stressed the role of media as a key partner in the electoral process, as it is an important element in bringing about change within society.

He said that that the HNEC cannot succeed without the media and the importance of its impartiality, adding that the media must focus on delivering the correct information to the voter.

The head of the organizing committee for the conference, Al-Naimi Al-Alam, told the Libyan Cloud News Agency that the conference aims primarily at educating the Libyan citizen about the importance of his voice, his role and his participation in the electoral process.

Al-Alam stressed the importance of academic institutions in supporting the electoral process through the participation of a number of professors and academics from various Libyan universities in this conference, hoping that its outputs and the recommendations that the participants will come up with will help the media to establish an electoral campaign, both with regard to citizens or candidates in parliamentary and presidential elections.