Building Citizen Participation in the Political Process in Egypt Through Better Media, Parliamentary and Civil Society Interaction

The objective of this project is to assist with Egypt’s transition to democracy by helping to build an accountable relationship between citizens and their elected representatives, through strengthening the ability of the media to be a balanced facilitator of the relationship between civil society and politicians.

Key Project Activities

  • Providing training for print and broadcast journalists in covering parliament and politics, in an independent, inclusive and responsible way.
  • Assisting journalism students from a number of Egyptian universities with running a website covering issues related to parliament and politics, and thereby helping them to develop their journalism skills.
  • Establishing a political TV debate programme on an Egyptian channel called ‘People’s Parliament’ that facilitates direct communication between citizens and their elected representatives.
  • Organising roundtable discussions that will bring together civil society, media and parliamentarians to discuss citizen-parliament interaction, the quality of media reporting on parliament, inclusive media and its impact on politics, on-going reforms in Egypt and freedom of expression.

Region/country: Egypt

Timeframe/dates: 2012-2015

Funder: UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Partners: multiple; including media and civil society organizations.