State of the media in Southern Africa - 2004 by members of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) and municipal constables of the Maseru City Council (MCC), in the Maseru Central Business District area, when he attempted to report on their assault on street vendors. Maqelepo was making his way to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Lesotho Media Resource Centre when two pick-up trucks, one full of armed Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) officers and the other full of equally armed Maseru City Council (MCC) municipal constables, came to a halt metres from him in Maseru’s central business district. Police officers and the MCC personnel jumped from the trucks waving batons and sjamboks and hurling vulgarities at street vendors telling them to vacate the streets. • ALERT Date: September 13, 2004 Persons/Institutions: Setsomi Sa Litaba newspaper Violation(s): Legislation During the week of September 13-17, 2004, the weekly Sesotho tabloid Setsomi Sa Litaba appeared in court four times to answer to a charge of defamation (civil) for an article it published on April 14, 2004. Setsomi Sa Litaba is a sister publication of the Mirror newspaper. Setsomi Sa Litaba is being sued for damages totaling Maloti 130 000 (approximately US$20 000) by Advocate Kananelo Mosito, acting on behalf of one Ms. Makhotso Tlali. On April 14 2004, the newspaper published an article entitled “Namolela litopo Bulane”, which literally translates to ‘Bulane intervenes on behalf of the corpses’. According to the sub-editor of the newspaper, Caswell Tlali, the newspaper reported on an incident which occurred at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in the capital Maseru, where hospital nurses allegedly swore and spat at corpses of members of the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) political party following the political strangulation of September 1998. • ALERT Date: October 6, 2004 Persons/Institutions: MISA Lesotho Violation(s): Censored The Lesotho chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Lesotho has, since October 6 2004, been denied access to the state owned radio and television to comment on media law reform developments in the country and to advocate for the reform of the national radio and television. MISA Lesotho had requested a slot on the morning current affairs phonein programme, Seboping, of the state owned Radio Lesotho, in which it had hoped to sensitise the public about the need for Radio Lesotho to be transformed into a public service broadcaster (PSB) that serves the public. On October 6, 2004, Lesotho Television (LTV) interviewed the MISA-Lesotho national director, Mr Malefetsane Nkhahle, about the PSB campaign and asked MISA Lesotho to comment on the proposed Lesotho Broadcasting Corporation Bill which has been tabled before parliament. The national chapter criticized the Bill for not conforming to the ideals of a true PSB. The interview preceded a MISA Lesotho meeting of stakeholders to form an NGO and civil society coalition to pressure government to withdraw the Bill and involve the wider sector of civil society stakeholders in consultations to improve the legislation. LTV was also invited to the meeting but did not attend. Upon investigating its absence, MISA Lesotho was reliably informed that the LTV crew was refused permission to cover the meeting by superiors in the Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology. Furthermore, the Nkhahle interview was not televised as per the instruction of the ministry’s authorities. MISA Lesotho was further scheduled to appear on the October 13, 2004 LTV programme, Seotlong. However, its participation has since been cancelled. So This Is Democracy? 2004 58 Media Institute of Southern Africa