During the recent Presidential election period, the Independent Committee for Election Monitoring (ICEM) trained a team of observers to monitor media coverage of campaigning and all aspects of the election. The team's main objective was to ascertain the extent to which the Egyptian media remained neutral and unbiased towards the running candidates, and to record the degree of its obedience to the law.  The following is a report on the progress of media monitoring unit during the presidential campaigns. The report covers the first week of electoral campaigns August 17-23). The team monitored several official and private newspapers, which included Al-Akhbar, Al-Ahram, Al-Mesa, Nahdt Masr, and Al-Masry Al-Yom in addition to several TV channels: Channel I and II, Nile News, and Dream II. Media affiliated with political parties were excluded from the monitoring process due to their representation of presidential candidates.
In Brief:
1.     The monitoring process was carried out by a team of nine observers.
2.     The observation lasted from August 17th until September 4th, 2005.
3.     The ICEM took as legal basis the Presidential Law, which stipulates that state-owned media should be equally accessible to all candidates.
4.     The observer's tasks depended on two different criteria:
(A)  Quantitative criteria, which were based on counting the percentage of media coverage, by time and space allocated.
(B)  Qualitative criteria, which were based on both positive and negative representation of the candidates.
The committee gathered qualitative and quantitative measures and processed them as statistical data.
General overview:
 
Private printed and electronic media coverage exhibited greater levels of neutrality than the state owned media.
Private TV coverage was characterized by greater neutrality than the state owned TV.
Independent newspapers such as Al-Masry Al-Yom and Nahdt Misr showed a high level of neutrality.
Observers Reports:
  
(1)   Official Newspapers
 
Main titles dedicated to the NDP candidate reached 97 %. 
Internal contents dedicated to the NDP candidate reached 87 %.
Ads dedicated to NDP candidates were estimated at 54%, while ads dedicated to Al-Wafd candidates reached 45%.  
(2)   Independent Newspapers
 
Main titles dedicated to NDP candidate reached 82%, while the Al-Wafd candidate occupied 13 % and 3% for the Al-Ghad candidate.
The internal content dedicated to the NDP candidate obtained 55%, while the Al Wafd candidate obtained 11%.
Ads dedicated to NDP candidate reached 54 % while Al-Wafd candidate received 45%. 

(3)  Official TV Channels
 
The largest percentage of space in the [which ?] News Bulletin was granted to the NDP candidate.
Most of the discussion programs were dedicated to the NDP candidates.
The gap between the percentage of ads dedicated to the NDP candidate and Al-Wafd candidate was fairly small.
 
(4) Private TV Channels
The only independent channel observed, Dream II, was extremely biased, since most of its programs promoted the NDP candidate.