SECTOR 1 1.4 Government makes every effort to honour regional and international instruments on freedom of expression and the media. In Benin it must be remembered that he African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights is now embedded in the Constitution and takes priority in comparison with domestic law. he country has also signed the ECOWAS protocol on Democracy and Good Governance which has its irst article committing and guaranteeing among the common constitutional principles of States: the freedom of association, of meeting and peaceful demonstration and freedom of the media. he government is obliged to deploy eforts in this area because of the conditionalities resulting from international collaboration which is guided by a certain number of rules of democracy and pluralism. he regime, however, feels seriously tempted to go against the commitments they have made. Trade unionists are struggling to exercise their right to demonstrate, and things are now up to a point where they were obliged to call on the International Labour Organisation (ILO). At the level of press freedom, it must be stated that increasing threats from the police are causing some of the journalists to sometimes say “we will go on despite the risks” to process the information. According to one of the panelists, a lot of work has to be done since most of the international and regional legislations were ratiied in the mid-80s and this was during the Marxist regime. 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: 78 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BENIN 2011 2.7 (2007=n/a ; 2009=3.2)