SECTOR 2 2.7 All media fairly represent the voices of both women and men Panellists noted that there are some discrepancies in how the voices of men and women are represented in the media, particularly on topics that are considered to be the most pertinent. ‘The media are biased towards males for voices on “hard issues”. We have several female economists, for example, but the media tend to go to the men.’ ‘The media position men as the authority on economics and politics, which also make up the bulk of media content coverage, particularly in print media.’ A panellist noted that a recent conference held in Windhoek, in partnership with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, concluded that women are not well-covered in the media on issues of politics, such as elections. The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development compels that in terms of media content, both men and women’s voices should appear in the story as much as possible. However, panellists noted that when women are covered, it is often to profile them in segments such as ‘women on the rise’, to highlight them on ‘soft topics’ or to cover their plight as victims in some way or another. A panellist noted that from a community broadcasting perspective (for example with vox pops10) the voices heard are mostly those of men. ‘Culturally, the head of the house is the man and they are the ones prescribed by society to speak and this hasn’t changed much.’ Another noted that women do not mind giving their comments and will generally speak freely on different issues, ‘but many don’t want their name and picture to appear in the paper’. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: Score of previous years: ✓✓✓✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓✓✓✓✓ 2.3 2005: n/a; 2007: n/a; 2009: n/a; 2011: 1.8; 2015: 2.6 10 Vox pop – Popular opinion as represented by informal comments from members of the public, especially when broadcast or published. Source: www.mediacollege.com. 30 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER NAMIBIA 2018