Certain news presenters were biased and some channels tried to influence voters during the presidential election runoff, a Presidential Elections Commission committee charged with monitoring media coverage has said. Many satellite channels broke the campaigning ban and some private channels used news tickers and viewer text messages to influence voters, the committee said in a report. Jihan Mansour of the “Sabahak Andena” talk show on Dream satellite channel and Tawfiq Okasha of the “Misr al-Youm” talk show on Al-Faraeen were clearly against Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy, according to the committee. Mahmoud Saad of Al-Nahar channel and Amr al-Leithy of Al-Mehwar were clearly biased Morsy's rival, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, the report said. The committee report said presenters failed to ask about the sources of funds for economic policies each candidate claimed would fulfill the hopes of the people, while some channels accepted phone calls from supporters of only one candidate. Media experts have criticized the news coverage of state TV and certain private satellite channels, saying it lacks credibility. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
