SECTOR 2 2.7 All media fairly reflect the voices of both women and men. The coverage of issues cannot be considered fair, especially in a tabloid such as H-Metro which demeans women in the way it portrays them and carries degrading pictures of women on the front page. This is one illustration of the fact that the media is a reflection of the patriarchal structure and attitudes of Zimbabwean society. Gender roles are specified and there are unwritten and unofficial rules that spell out the role of men and women. “It is the way we are socialised and the way we grew up - men always had this dominant space. You only have to look at the newsrooms - the men are in the decision making posts and there are very few women at the top.” An informal survey of the print media found that most articles in every section focused on men as subjects and as sources. The stories talked about the achievements of men in their different fields and when the spotlight was turned on women it was either as a victim or the perpetrator of a crime – such as the woman who beat up her husband. The role of women in social situations is dramatised and sensationalised. A study on gender and the media, commissioned by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) in 2011, found “that women remain at the periphery of the news, either appearing in limited roles or simply invisible”. Even quality papers mainly talk about women and not with them: The front pages remain a male bastion with only 22 per cent of articles reviewed in a three-month period featuring women as news sources. The Herald instituted a gender policy early in 2012 to promote the voices of women and the newsroom agreed that their female colleagues would take the lead in this initiative. 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: 32 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZIMBABWE 2012 2.2 (2010:1.3; 2008:n/a; 2006:n/a)