African Elections Project to Cover Guinea Elections 2010

                                                     Press Release

For immediate release

Conakry Guinea ,  18^th June 2010 –

African Elections Project to Cover Guinea Elections 2010

 The African Elections Project (AEP) www.africanelections.org/guinea will be covering Guinea's general election, taking place on Sunday 27^th of June 2010 to elect a president out of  24 candidates.  AEP was established in 2008 to empower journalists to cover elections using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across the continent. AEP have successfully covered elections in Botswana, Namibia, Ghana, Mauritania, Mozambique, Malawi, Togo and with plans far advanced to cover Cote d' Ivoire, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon and Niger.

The role of the media in ensuring free and fair elections is indispensable. All over the world the media is playing this important role of ensuring free and fair elections by working with all stakeholders across board. According to Kwami Ahiabenu,II AEP project lead consultant, "African Elections Project is working with media and civil society stakeholders to strengthen the electoral process by providing independent information through impartial coverage using building blocks of training of senior editors, journalists and reporters in the use of ICTs in elections coverage as well as SMS application in coverage and monitoring, Election Guide for the Media, Information and Knowledge Online Portal,  Knowledge products for the media and  Media Monitoring incorporating early warning system."

In addition to its flagship online portal www.africanelections.org/guinea , AEP is covering this elections using other new media tools such as facebook, frontlinesms,  twitter  http://twitter.com/guineaelections  and  have set up elections mapping tool using ushahidi with  with its partners, Guinea Alliance at http://africanelections.org/guinea/maps/

The African Elections Project is coordinated by Ghana based International Institute for ICT Journalism (www.penplusbytes.org ) working hand in hand with other key partners across the continent. The Open Society Initiative for West Africa www.osiwa.org  is the main strategic and funding partner for AEP project in Guinea.

 Almamy Kalla Conte

AEP Guinea

guinea@africanelections.org

 

--
International Institute for ICT Journalism
www.penplusbytes.org