SECTOR 2 2.9 Media cover the full spectrum of economic, cultural, political, social, national and local perspectives and conduct investigative stories There is a big skew towards politics in both the state and private media in Lesotho. Journalists in the country, especially in the state media, follow ministers and in the process neglect community and social stories. Ministers put pressure on state journalists to cover their stories; an example was given of how the Minister of Energy wanted the state broadcaster to cover all his nation-wide country engagements, even though the agenda of the engagement was the same in each of the areas to which he was travelling. The dominance of political stories also has to do with resource and capacity constraints; there is simply no capacity to cover all types of stories. For instance, in some private media politicians will sponsor journalists to cover government stories – contributing to the dominance of political stories in the media. Panellists felt that there is very little investigative reporting in the media, primarily because of the lack of resources and the juniourisation of the newsroom. There are too few trained and seasoned journalists in most newsrooms. A newspaper may break an important story, but there is usually no follow-up or critical analysis of the issue. There is also a tendency in Lesotho for journalists to follow each other regarding coverage, so media cover the same stories. When stories on social issues do appear in the media, they are often on issues such as witchcraft or adultery and are often covered by small-scale newspapers who sensationalise them to sell papers. There is very little content diversity in the media in Lesotho. 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: 30 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER LESOTHO 2018 ✓✓ ✓✓ ✓ ✓ ✓✓ ✓✓✓ 2.2 (2015: 2.1, 2012: 1.5, 2010: 3.7, 2008: 2.0, 2006: 4.0)