SECTOR 2 The current government made an announcement that the opposition party Democratic Congress (DC) public rallies would not be covered by the public media for as long as the DC kept making claims that it had won the last elections. The irony is that the DC, which was in government before the May polls, had prevented other political parties, mainly the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), from being featured in state-run media. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 1.9 (2010 = 1.4; 2008 = 1.0; 2006 = 1.0) 2.5 Adequate competition legislation/regulation seeks to prevent media concentration and monopolies. Lesotho has no competition Act or authority/regulator, in fact it has the opposite – under the industrial and trading licences system a business can apply for protection from competition for up to 10 years.2 In 2010, the country adopted a National Competition Law which has not yet been implemented. The Communications Act of 2012 addresses competition management but refers only to the broadcasting sector. This new legislation attempts to put measures to prevent monopolies in the broadcasting and electronic media but the print media is excluded. Schedule VI of the Communications Act has a section dedicated to Competition Management and one of the clauses titled Competitive Safeguard states that: “The Authority may adopt competitive safeguards designed to deter a dominant licensee from using its significant market power in one market to impede the development of competition in another market.” An individual can own as many print media outlets as he or she wants as there are no legal restrictions. 2 UNCTAD (2003) ‘Investment Policy Review: Lesotho’, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Geneva, available online at http://unctad.org/en/Docs/iteipc20034_en.pdf AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER LESOTHO 2012 31