Filastiniyat, an independent, non-partisan Palestinian NGO has been conducting its 2006 Parliamentary Election Media Monitoring Project to systematically monitor the media coverage of the upcoming legislative council elections. This project is conducted with the material and technical support of the International Media Support (www.i-m-s.dk), an international organization headquartered in Copenhagen, promoting media development worldwide. In the framework of this support, MEMO 98` representative Rasto Kuzel has provided trainings and consultancy to help Filastiniyat in conducting its media and elections focused project and to analyze the broadcast and print media.

Filastiniyat seeks to evaluate the mass media's performance in providing objective and balanced coverage of the candidates and their platforms so the citizens of Palestine can make well-informed choices at the ballot box. The project's findings will be determined through a well-defined and rigorous methodology and are not intended to support any one candidate or political party, but the integrity of the media environment as a whole during the campaign season.

Media monitoring for the 25 Parliamentary Elections commenced on 3 January using qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. Quantitative analysis will measure the total amount of time and space devoted to elections-related coverage on one state-funded TV channels, four private TV stations, one state-funded radio and three newspapers. The qualitative analysis will evaluate whether the information about candidates is positive, negative, or neutral in its content.

Analysing the media over the course of three weeks with the help of approximately 15 monitors and analysts, Filastiniyat is to release its results of the monitoring on 26 January at a press conference in Ramallah. (see more on www.filastiniyat.org).