SECTOR 2

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:

1.6 (2005 = n/a; 2007 = n/a; 2009 = 1.1)

2.7
All media fairly reflect the voices of both women
and men.
The media do not reflect the voices of both men and women in a balanced way.
The content of the media tends to be mostly male-dominated or presented from
a male perspective, and this is probably a reflection of the composition of media
houses as most of the senior management positions within the state and private
media are held by men.

“At 80 percent
of all news
sources, men in
Botswana still
prevail in the
news.”

A Genderlinks Gender and Media Progress Study released in
February 2011 showed that women comprised 20 percent of all
sources of media content – this is an increase from 16 percent
in research conducted by Genderlinks seven years ago. The
report states, however: “At 80 percent of all news sources, men in
Botswana still prevail in the news.” Women’s voices are also largely
heard in ‘soft’ beats, such as health and education, while they are
barely heard in sports, politics and economics and not at all heard
in media reports concerning mining and housing.
In terms of the public sector strike, all the news reports have
included views and comments from men, while no women have
been heard on the issue.

Nevertheless, some participants felt there had been some improvement in the
media’s discussion of gender issues.

32

AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BOTSWANA 2011

Select target paragraph3