It was a tightly contested election and the two major parties – the Democratic Congress (DC) and the All Basotho Convention (ABC) which garnered the most votes, decided against an alliance and instead, Prime Minister Mosisili’s party, DC, formed a coalition with six smaller parties. A few months after the elections, leaders of the opposition and some of their members fled to South Africa, claiming their lives were in danger. Tension in the country reached its peak when soldiers were abducted earlier this year. Attempts to get information on their whereabouts proved impossible, forcing family members of the missing soldiers to lodge a court application requesting a High Court order for the Lesotho Defence Force to produce them. They were eventually brought to court, in shackles, accompanied by heavily armed soldiers wearing balaclavas. Just a few weeks after the African Media Barometer meeting, the former commander of the Lesotho Army Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao was shot and killed. Mahao, who was appointed army commander in August last year by former premier Thabane, was removed from office by the current Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili. Mahao replaced Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli but was unable to take control of the army after the latter rejected his dismissal. This contest for power within the security sector and political leadership has had a rippling effect on the social and media landscape. Intimidation has escalated to an extent that citizens have become cautious, while journalists avoid reporting on certain issues. When people decide to express their opinions they choose to hide their identity. Callers calling in to radio programmes prefer to remain anonymous while print media journalists will use pseudonyms or revert to using the byline of ‘staff reporter’ to avoid the potential ramifications of using their own name. Journalists have received threatening phone calls and members of the public have been arrested for commenting on certain issues. There have been attempts by state authorities to clamp down on the media when they think they are in danger. Before the 2012 election, the acting Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communications, Science and Technology decided to switch off all the private radio stations for a few hours that day. This action was repeated on August 30th, 2014, when the chief engineer – under the instruction of the Lesotho Defense Force – shut down the radio stations. Ordinary people allege that interception of telephone calls and other communications is rife; information officers in government ministries and organisations are wary of releasing information that should be in the public sphere; fearing for their jobs. Civil servants are not heard expressing their personal views in public; while journalists – particularly those working in the state media – practice a high level of self-censorship. On the whole, when people are expressing themselves, they are doing so with a certain level of fear. 8 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Lesotho 2015