SECTOR 2 In cases where these obligations have been breached, the HAAC reprimands the defaulting media outlet and if necessary, imposes penalties in line with the provisions of the law creating the Broadcasting and Communication Authority. For strictly editorial and economic reasons, news media produce content that covers a wide range of sectors. Young journalists are becoming increasingly specialised. However, the coverage of politics and society is still dominant over other beats. Conditions on the ground are favourable to investigative journalism. Nevertheless, there are still several hurdles – one of them being poor access to public sources of information. In addition, conditions in media outlets are not conducive to investigative journalism. According to a panellist, with political news and major corruption scandals among the most read news stories, the profitability of investigative articles becomes a major issue. A few newspapers specialising in investigative journalism were forced to switch to spot reporting to stay in business. 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: ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓✓✓✓✓✓✓ ✓ 2.3 (2007 = 3.9; 2009 = 3.3; 2011 = 3.3; 2014 = 2.5) 2.10 Private broadcasters deliver a minimum of quality public interest programmes Opinions differ as to the quality of private broadcasting programmes and productions. Critics argue that private media serve a narrow economic interest and lack the will and the means to cover topics of public interest. Some owners let their political views dictate their editorial content, as well as their choice of guests and sources of information. Others, unable to bear the cost of production, fill the airwaves with foreign music and film productions. Those who favourably rate private radio broadcasters note that the latter do a better job than their competitors in the public media. Even with limited resources, the private media produce programmes of higher quality than the public media: they have democratised access to the media by opening their airwaves for people to ‘empty themselves’. 26 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BENIN 2018