State of the media in Southern Africa - 2004 for reporting on alleged theft and fraud of monies amounting to M13 000 the weekend he was voted out of office. A week after the closures, Selinyane and former treasurer Neo Ramarou appeared before the magistrate court and were remanded into custody, where they paid ZAR500 bail each the same day. Office equipment was later returned to both newspapers. Public Eye, for which Selinyane is a columnist and which had also reported on the alleged theft and fraud, managed to stop the seizure of its equipment. Public Eye is also in the High Court as part of a ZAR200 000 defamation suit instituted against the newspaper by one Makhopotso Lebona, who claims that an article published in 2002 and titled, “The sorry case of X1626” was defamatory. The article reported that in 1989 the government vehicle used by the then-principal secretary of the Ministry of Interior Bereng Sekhonyana was allegedly burned down by Mrs Lebona during the military regime in a jealous rage. The demise of the car is nowhere in government records, as reported by the 1996 Audit Report, released in 2002. Mo-Afrika is in the High Court on charges of defamation instituted by Mopshatla Mabitle, an MP who claims that an article which reported on a bank statement belonging to one M. Mabitle is defamatory. Mo-Afrika and Public Eye are however awaiting the availability of their defence counsel, Zwelakhe Mda, who is seriously embroiled in a court case where he is accused of interfering with State witnesses in a murder case of the Prime Minister’s son, one Maile Mosisili. Advocate Mda is the substantive president of the Law Society of Lesotho, which has been a vocal critic of the judiciary, sometimes questioning its independence from the Executive. Conclusion The prevailing climate is not conducive to good journalism, nor safe for journalists. For instance, South African journalists, especially those from the SABC, have better access to information than those from local media houses. Some government ministries are yet to have information officers, who are however more like buffer zones than gateways to information. We have yet to see the enactment of media-friendly freedom of information laws, amidst efforts by the Law Review Commission and MISA Lesotho interventions to introduce such relevant Bills. So This Is Democracy? 2004 51 Media Institute of Southern Africa