Observers of the recently concluded polls in Timor-Leste noted the “generally objective coverage” of the elections by the local media. Given that “objectivity” is a journalistic standard of the highest order, the media’s performance in the last elections can therefore be described as a big step in the right direction.

As USAID’s partner in its Strengthening Independent Media Program, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) worked tirelessly behind the scenes assisting the local media in delivering the information that the public needed. For the 2007 legislative election, ICFJ facilitated “pool coverage,” combining the resources of participating national media outlets in order to provide good media coverage of this crucial national event. While pool coverage had been attempted before in the country, this was the first time that the pool was coordinated by a Timorese, rather than an international, journalist.

Forty nine journalists – 37 men and 12 women – from six districts comprised the journalists’ pool: 13 in Dili and seven each for the districts of Lautem, Viqueque, Ermera, Bobonaro, and Oecussi. Each district, with the exception of Dili, had a team leader, one technician and five reporters. In Dili, there were more technicians, to ensure that the news bulletins and stories produced by the pool were distributed and broadcast regularly to participating media outlets and community radio stations in the districts. For the first time, community radio stations in the districts received timely news dispatches from Dili. Moreover, Dili was getting more news stories from the districts as well. “As a result of the pool coverage, the Dili news outlets offered increased and unprecedented coverage of the elections in the districts,” ICFJ deputy country director Emanuel Braz said.

In establishing the pool, ICFJ partnered with two national papers, Timor Post and Diario Nacional, a district-based newspaper (Lifau Post of Oecussi), and nine community radio stations (four Dili-based and five district-based). The Center assisted the pool with logistics and resources and also provided training to journalists that covered the fundamentals, such as electoral law and process, as well as the technical aspects of coverage.

“The trainings gave the journalists a better idea as to how to cover the elections. The trainings were definitely useful in helping them cover a wide range of election issues: security, voter turnout, voting process (including counting), irregularities such as fraud and intimidation, voters’ opinions, and so on,” Francedes Suni, the pool’s national project coordinator, explained.

One house rule for those in the pool, though, was that they should not use their special access privileges to score an “exclusive” story for themselves. One can imagine this being a huge problem elsewhere, but not in Timor-Leste, where in these early days, cooperation between media practitioners is the order of the day.