SECTOR 2 When women’s voices are carried, this is usually in their personal capacity, rather than in their professional capacity as sources for hard news, political coverage, and so forth. Additionally, coverage on women often portrays them “with a bit of mockery”, it showcases them as overly emotional, they are often sexualised in terms of their bodies, and the media usually places them in stories as victims, rather than as news sources and/or heroes. No media house in the country has a gender policy except for Zimpapers news group which has a draft. 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 (2012 = 2.2; 2010 = 1.3; 2008 = n/a; 2006 = n/a) 2.8 All media fairly represent the voices of society and its minorities in its ethnic, linguistic, religious diversity. Not all voices in society are fairly represented, and the elite often enjoy greater representation. “The rich and the powerful get more prominent coverage.” “Ordinary people are also covered, but often in terms of crimes, etc.” Panellists noted a problematic “news value system”, which is “not celebrating ordinary people in terms of their achievement.” Even in cases where media outlets claim to have representation nationally, several areas are not covered or accessed for news content. “Almost always, media houses are limited to coverage in/of Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare.” Where greater diversity is represented linguistically – such as in the Kwayedza paper written in Shona, issues covered are not always nationally relevant. “Kwayedza would be touching on different issues such as witches, as opposed to national issues. 34 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZIMBABWE 2015