SECTOR 2 One panellist noted, “We’re not comfortable with the media fund in the Ghanaian context unless it is used to enhance access.” Other panellists simply felt that government should not have to play a role in promoting a diverse media landscape, “Government should not have to support the media.” 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: 1.0 (2006:n/a; 2008:n/a; 2011:1.9; 2013:2.7) 2.7 All media fairly represent the voices of both women and men. “The answer is no!” “Empirical studies have shown that women’s voices in the media were not more than 7 percent across all media platforms in the last election. It is easy to see that we don’t meet this indicator.” The media tends to tolerate men more than women, and men are sought after to a much greater extent than women as information and news sources. When women express strong views, they often face public scrutiny and greater criticism than men for these views. “This tends to subdue a lot of women, to the extent that when doing a Vox pop [voice of the people] on a small topic, women are more likely to shy away from the camera or microphone than men.” This criticism of women is societal and extends “even to fellow women, who will say things like ‘oh, she talks too much’.” Media ownership, executive management and editorship are male-dominated. “Even when women are news editors, they don’t want to be seen covering women’s issues because these are seen as soft issues, and not the hard-core stories that prove that you are good.” This extends to the newsroom, where, although more women than men enrol in journalism training, men still outnumber women, AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER GHANA 2017 33