Botswana
at The Voice, Botswana Gazette and Sunday Tribune. BTV and Radio
Botswana also have mostly women in their leadership positions.
When it comes to working on the beat, however, female journalists
are often disadvantaged because they are not taken seriously by
interviewees.
Given that very few women feature during journalism awards like
those organized by MISA from time to time, the Botswana Media
Women’s Association (BOMWA) should be encouraged to make a
greater effort to motivate women journalists to come forward and
compete more for professional awards.
According to a study commissioned by MISA, only two media houses
have gender policies in place (Voice and government media). Those
that have no official policy claim to have unwritten gender practices and policies. Overall, there are no clear policy frameworks on
gender mainstreaming. Organizations like Gender and the Media in
Southern Africa (GEMSA) and Gender Links (GL) are active in helping
the media to address the situation.
SCORING:
Individual scores:

2, 4, 4, 4, 2, 3, 3, 3

Average score:

3.1

4.5

(2005 = 2.9)

Gender mainstreaming is reflected in the editorial content.

ANALYSIS:
Various studies on the Botswana media such as a 2002 Gender Links
study have shown that the editorial content of most media outlets
is generally unbalanced, with 84 percent of all sources being male
and only 16 percent female. This imbalance is getting worse rather
African Media Barometer - Botswana 2007

41

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