Swaziland
enough.” But there was also acknowledgement that gender prejudices persist. For example, some editors prefer to assign stories to
male reporters because they trust them to get the job done (“Women can’t detach from the story”).
SCORES:
Individual scores:

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

Average score:

2.9

4.5

(2005=2.1)

Gender mainstreaming is reflected in the editorial content.

ANALYSIS:
Gender mainstreaming is not a priority for the media and is largely
viewed as a foreign concept. As such, reporting can often be gender
blind and perpetuate gender prejudices.
The prevailing feeling is that “women’s voices are silent.” Research
by MISA Swaziland showed that 23% of all sources in news stories
were female. Reporters are partly to blame for overlooking female
sources, but the low representation of women’s voices also reflects
the reluctance of women to speak to the media. Culturally it is the
men who do the talking, so even if reporters do try to use female
sources, they may often fail. Swazi society is still very much a maledominated culture and the media tends to reinforce this rather than
challenge it.
Though high-profile women often get media coverage, positive stories of ordinary women are extremely rare because “they don’t
sell.”
MISA Swaziland’s study on the reporting of the 16 Days Campaign
Against Gender Violence in 2006 showed that the campaign received
38

African Media Barometer - Swaziland 2007

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