10 April 2014 - The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Guinea-Bissau, José Ramos-Horta, today hosted the handing over ceremony of equipment to local media for them to better cover general elections on Sunday, 13 April.

The event took place at the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS), in the presence of the General Director at the Secretariat of State for Social Communication - the national partner -, Humberto Monteiro, managers of public and private media, representatives of civil society and some members of the 12 electoral observation missions already in the country.

TV, radio, news agency and press, journalists from public and private sector received this equipment for the coverage of the electoral process - during the political campaign, the elections day itself and in the aftermath of the elections - with independence, objectivity and reliability, to better inform people.

The equipment is funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund under the UN/PBSO/PBF/UNIOGBIS/PIU project.

This project will run until December 2014. It amounts close to $200.000 and covers three phases: the first one, from 1 April to 11 April includes the coverage of the electoral campaign, debates and air time for media for political parties and candidates. The second phase is the coverage of elections on the 13 April and finally the third phase (post-elections) will focus on the priorities of the newly elect authorities, state-building and the return to constitutional order which is the core mission of UNIOGBIS mandate.

Overall, 23 media and at least 63 journalists are directly involved in the coverage of elections. They have received 186 professional equipment comprising PCs, digital recorders, photo cameras, TV sets, microphones, headphones, printers and motorbikes in addition to credit phone card and a per diem for the E-day on 13 April.