The 5th Media and Elections Workshop is set to be opened on Tuesday 12 March, 2013 by SIS Chairman Ambassador Mohammad Badreddin Zayed at SIS Headquarters in Nasr City Egypt with the Higher Elections Commission's Spokesman Hisham Mukhtar present.

The workshop, implemented by the SIS in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme is part of the SIS plan to achieve cultural education and of UNDP's plan to promote democracy in Egypt. Similar study courses were implemented earlier in the governorates of Ismailia, Aswan, Cairo and Alexandria.

Chairman Zayed highlighted that according to trainees' response and final analysis the workshops have proved to be so successful and so compatible with the SIS message in the field of political education that many media agencies have requested the implementation thereof.

Chairman Zayed added that the SIS will pursue its efforts with regard to raising public awareness and to honing citizens' skills with the purpose of promoting democracy in Egypt.

In their earlier sessions, the workshops targeted 140 representatives of local media in all their forms; i.e. government, party-owned or independent published, audio/visual, or electronic. Many topics were dealt with including the role of the media during elections, objective coverage of events, and the main aspects of Egyptian elections as compared to those in other countries