SECTOR 2 2.6 Government promotes a diverse media landscape with economically sustainable and independent media outlets. Analysis: Since Zimbabwe has come out of the prolonged and rapidly accelerating inflation period (lasting from 1998 to 2008) and adopted the US dollar as the local currency, the economy has stabilised - a precondition for economically sustainable media outlets. However, government is not actively promoting media diversity in any way and developments in this direction are only happening by default. 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: 1.3 (2008: n/a ; 2006: n/a) 2.7 All media fairly reflect the voices of both women and men. Analysis: Most media in Zimbabwe continue to be unconscious of the importance of giving fair coverage to voices of both women and men. Women remain largely unheard and unseen. Stories do not consider how things may affect men and women, boys and girls differently. The majority of stories carry It’s hard to get a disproportionate number of male voices women to talk. as sources or opinion makers. Zimpapers’ H-Metro has lots of stories on women but they are mostly degrading and disparaging and focus on domestic issues, with women being vilified by headlines such as “Girlfriend pours oil on boyfriend”, “Woman sets fire to husband’s property” etc. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZIMBABWE 2010 37