Botswana than diminishing. One of the reasons could be that while people generally do not trust the media and its accuracy in coverage, women are even more wary of being misrepresented and therefore tend to refuse to be interviewed. There is a strong cultural component to this as women perceive themselves as more vulnerable and not liberated enough even though they may have climbed up the corporate ladder. Many women in high positions will rather delegate a requested interview to a male colleague. Journalists need to make a deliberate effort to seek out women and get their voices heard. Another reason for the imbalance is that news coverage is often merely event rather than issue driven, and that gender topics could be better addressed in issue driven stories. SCORING: Individual scores: 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2 Average score: 2.3 4.6 (2005 = 1.5) Journalists and editors do not practice self-censorship. ANALYSIS: Self-censorship on the part of journalists is common. Botswana is a small society and many people know each other intimately. This leads to a tendency not to report things about each other for fear of being ostracized by one’s own community (“He is my mate, I leave this out …”).. As far as possible, editors try not to censor themselves. But they do 42 African Media Barometer - Botswana 2007