Sector 2: The media landscape is characterised by diversity, independence and sustainability. 2.1 A wide range of sources of information (print, broadcasting, internet) is available and affordable to citizens. ANALYSIS: With a dozen dailies, about ten magazines and more than 200 radio stations as well as a dozen television channels, citizens have a broad spectrum of sources of information available. However, these are not accessible to the entire population, either because they are financially out of reach, because they do not get delivered to the area where they live or because there are no transmission facilities. Radio stations as well as television channels do not have national coverage, other than the national radio (RNM) and national television (TVM) which broadcast to the entire territory. Newspaper circulation is restricted to the capital, other large cities and main provincial sites. With the exception of Antananarivo, newspapers reach their readers days late due to the lack of a dedicated distribution mechanism and, most of all, the weaknesses and insufficiencies of the transport system. SCORES: Individual scores: 2, 2, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2 Average score: 2.8 2.2 Citizens’ access to domestic and international media sources is not restricted by state authorities. ANALYSIS: State authorities do not openly limit citizen’s access to national or international media, which is apparently free. They rather act in more subtle ways. Examples are the non-renewal of the work permit of the correspondent of Radio France Internationale (RFI), the unexplained expulsion of the former editor-in-chief of the daily Les Nouvelles as well as the correspondent of Marchés Tropicaux, or the national airlines not being allowed to carry certain newspapers, among them the dailies Les Nouvelles and la Gazette de la Grande Ile. The real motive behind seemingly arbitrary decisions against these media is a more general one: their tone does not please the regime. A radio station in the Toamasina province was ordered to suspend operations for having broadcast a press journal including oppositionfriendly titles which did not meet the taste of local authorities. SCORES: 30