In the terms of reference for the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) for the biennium 2016-2017, the Committee of Ministers asked the CDMSI to “carry out a feasibility study on a possible standard-setting instrument on media coverage of elections, with particular regard to gender equality and the use of the internet in elections” and approved the committee of experts on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership (MSI-MED) as a subordinate structure to facilitate the work of the CDMSI. The composition of the MSI-MED appears in the Appendix. In its first meeting on 22-23 March 2016, the expert committee decided to deal separately with the two components of the study, namely the use of the internet in electoral campaigns and gender equality in the context of media coverage of elections. Mr Damian Tambini was appointed as Rapporteur for the preparation of the study on the use of internet in electoral campaigns. Subsequently it was decided in the CDMSI Bureau and confirmed by the MSI-MED to omit from the titles of the studies the mention “feasibility” and the references to standard-setting instruments, given the openended conclusions of the studies and the need to obtain more comparative information before deciding on what specific follow-up to give to them.