Reuters Training Programmes, in cooperation with Tawasol Training Center, gave a five-day training course in Cairo aimed at honing the skills of Egyptian journalists to achieve fair and balanced coverage of elections. The course proved so inspiring that the participants formed a group on Facebook with a tribute to the training.

With Egypt's parliamentary and presidential elections approaching, many journalists clamoured to enlist in the course but a mix of just 15 media workers was chosen from print media, TV channels and internet-based news portals. Discussions are in hand about running the course again within the coming months to meet demand.

Trainers Nadia El-Gowely and Amira Fahmy handled in depth the role of media in democratic elections and the elements conducive to fair and free elections including: informing voters about the process, credibility of election coverage, amplifying people’s voice, balanced coverage of candidates, how to plan a comprehensive media campaign of the elections and safety in the field.

Special attention was given to covering the voting day and following up to the final results. Training also covered writing skills, sources, ethics and legal dangers.

A training programme was designed for this course based on Reuters material and exercises tailored for the purpose. The course was conducted through a set of interactive lectures, PowerPoint presentations and writing exercises.

Professional experts gave sessions on the constitutional aspects of the electoral process and legal protection of journalists, the role of new media in elections, and the political empowerment of women. Trainees also gained useful tips on covering elections from a seasoned journalist with more than 25 years' experience in the field.

Capturing the spirit of team work and seeking to spread the high professional standards of journalism the course endeavoured to foster, the trainees started a group on Facebook called "Professional Reporters Network (PRN)".

They described themselves on their webpage as "a group for journalists to share ideas, work problems and experiences bearing in mind a favour by Thomson Reuters Foundation" (which provides Reuters Training Programmes).