SECTOR 4 The media practise high levels of professional standards. 4.1 The standard of reporting follows the basic principles of accuracy and fairness. Several factors militate against high quality journalism which obeys the principles of accuracy and fairness. These are essentially the lack of resources, political pressure and lack of adequate training. Members of the public as well as journalists argue that media institutions and journalists themselves show evidence of many failures. Good journalism can be considered the exception, practiced by two or three media institutions. Newspapers often publish contradictory information, depending on their political inclinations. They often do not give accurate information, for example, the actual number of persons present at a political meeting. While some newspapers say that there was a large crowd, others say that it was only a few people. In general, these media institutions are proponents of a certain political viewpoint and lack objectivity: one can therefore speak of a pro-incumbent press and a proopposition press. Journalists often mix the facts with their opinions and sometimes certain facts are not verified.. They are not used to give all people involved in a story the opportunity to express themselves. It often happens that the organizers of events provide guidance to reporters and even editors on how to process the information. When the newspapers are wrong, and this happens from time to time, they publish adjustments and rebuttals. Often, these rebuttals are published with a comment by the newspaper. The Union newspaper will edit the replies and/or rebuttals in order to more or less reflect its position on the offending article. 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: 100 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER GABON 2016 1.7