On 31 October, media houses in Maseru - which include the Lesotho Defence Force Public Relations Office, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Southern African Press Association (SAPA) and Agence France-Presse (AFP) - were refused information at the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Lesotho about the Commonwealth Speakers’ Conference. The reason given by the authorities was that the information would first be transmitted to the government-owned and controlled Radio Lesotho before being transmitted to the independent media. Following the incident, the MISA-Lesotho approached the National Assembly for clarification and was informed that the public officials involved acted in accordance with a mandate from government authorities. MISA-Lesotho responded that these public officials were merely custodians and not proprietors of public information, adding that the act was a gross violation of media freedom and the right to access information. The deputy clerk of the National Assembly, Rethabile Maluke, was eventually authorised to transmit the information to the independent media in addition to the state media. This case illustrates the need for the ongoing MISA-Lesotho campaign for the transformation of state media into public service broadcasters so that a truly free, robust and pluralistic media with diverse views can become a reality in the Kingdom of Lesotho. · ALERT Date: July 29, 2005. Persons/Institutions: Catholic Radio Violation: Threatened The Stadium Management Board of Setsoto National Stadium in Maseru, sent a letter of complaint to the Catholic Radio (CRFM) Management about a programme that the radio station featured on July 29, 2005. The letter, which was signed by the Chairperson of the Management Board, Mrs. M. Ntokoane stated that on the morning of Friday July 29, 2005, the radio station broadcast a programme hosted by the Presenter, Jobo Masupha, where the topic for discussion was Setsoto stadium. The guests at the programme were Messrs. Tšiu Monne and Thabo Thakalekoala. According to the letter, issues that were raised in the said programme were mostly uninformed and defamatory. Among others the Board requested for a tape of that particular programme which it would study in order to conclude whether or not it would take legal action against the station. · ALERT Date: June 30, 2005. Persons/Institutions: Masupha Jobo, Sister Clementine Thatho Violation: Threatened The presenter of the Catholic Radio (CR) FM phone-in talk show, “Lijo’a Ke Baeti”, Masupha Jobo and the radio station manager, Sister Clementine Thatho, received threatening calls about the programme that Jobo was running on June 30, 2005. The programme focused on the issue of the King’s Brother, who is also the Principal Chief of Matsieng Royal Village in Maseru, being appointed as Lesotho’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. This has been a burning issue in Lesotho as most people could not understand how the Principal Chief could assume a politically oriented position. The programme sought to get the public’s views and comment on this issue. During the programme, anonymous calls came through to the presenter and the station manager, insinuating that CR FM was becoming more of an opposition to government and that the presenter had no business in the studio if he was to run programmes that were anti-government. The station manager stated that this was not the first incident, as members of the National Security Services had also approached her to complain that the presenter was anti-government. So This Is Democracy? 2005 -58- Media Institute of Southern Africa