International donors and aid organizations initiated several projects to help the media fulfil its mission during elections in Burundi in 2010 and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2011. This article examines the modalities of assistance to reporters and media outlets, comparing the stated aims of the foreign partners with what really happened. As the author reviews the specific political context of the elections, she attempts to identify the characteristics of the institutions, media and local journalistic practices that the project designers and aid workers seem to have underestimated.