SECTOR 4 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: 2.7 (2008 = 3.3) 4.3 The media cover the full spectrum of events, issues and cultures, including business/economics, cultural, local and investigative stories. Media organisations in Mauritius do not struggle with a lack of stories. In fact, there are far too many issues and events to cover and the media do a good job of covering the full spectrum of stories. The larger and more popular media will cover a wider spectrum of news to ensure the growth of their circulation figures or their audiences. There are two publications that focus primarily on investigative stories, and while the rest of the media do carry investigative pieces, they are not a common feature in their reportage. It is extremely difficult to undertake investigative stories in Mauritius because the island is small and everyone knows each other. So it is hard to follow a story without being found out. Mauritians love to hold press conferences, and this can be difficult for media houses who, on average, receive 10 to 20 invitations a day. Since it is not possible to cover all the events, journalists will often call up the organisers and report on the issue that will be raised at the briefing. Due to the large number of press conferences and the limited technical human resources to cover them, many stories are dropped, and not all issues will make it into the media. This also means that organisations have to work extra hard to ensure their issues are newsworthy enough to attract the attention of the media. Trade union and human rights issues do not seem to make it onto the news agenda, partly because the media owners have opinions that differ from the organisations they are supposed to cover. 54 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER MAURITIUS 2010