The Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) organized a webinar on observing and monitoring media reporting during elections on 30 July 2020 for various organizations in Myanmar.

Mr. Kumar Lopez of the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) and Daw Zin Mar Oo of Myanmar Network Organization for Free and Fair Election (MYNFREL) discussed observing and monitoring of media’s coverage of elections in Sri Lanka and Myanman, respectively.

As mainstream and social media play an important role in election campaigns and shaping public discourse, the webinar aimed to promote and increase media monitoring efforts ahead of the 2020 Myanmar General Election.

SLPI observation of newspaper coverage of the 2020 Sri Lankan Parliamentary Election.

SLPI and MYNFREL shared their experience in observing and monitoring media reporting of elections including the methodologies they used and the challenges they faced.

ANFREL invited representatives from select civil society organizations, election monitoring organizations, and tech and social media monitoring groups in Myanmar. ANFREL would also conduct mentoring and assistance for media observation and monitoring efforts of the Myanmar civil society.

Daw Zin Mar Oo of Myanmar Network Organization for Free and Fair Election (MYNFREL)

This program is part of ANFREL’s continuous engagement with electoral stakeholders in Myanmar in the lead up to the 2020 General Election. This comes hand in hand with ANFREL’s media capacity building program as a holistic approach to enriching the information landscape during elections by providing capacity for media on election reporting and empowering citizen movements in reviewing and suggesting improvements in media coverage of elections.

This program would not have been possible without the generous support from the Canadian Embassy in Yangon and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.