SECTOR 3 3.5 The editorial independence of the state/public broadcaster from political influence is guaranteed by law and practised to ensure balanced and fair news and current affairs programmes ‘Everything starts and ends with the minister.’ Panellists believed that regardless of what the Communications Act might say about the editorial independence of the state broadcaster, it makes no difference as editorial control ultimately lies in the hands of the minister – or whoever is in political power. Editors at LTV are newly appointed every time a new political party comes into power. The state broadcasting stations have no editorial policies, but LTV has recently implemented editorial guidelines. These guidelines do little to change the fact that the ‘buck’ stops with the political powers that be – particularly the minister. A panellist who once worked at LTV provided an example of when they ‘went against the grain’ and reported on a story that had been obtained from the Lesotho News Agency. The then permanent secretary came into the newsroom and confronted the panellist over the story. Another panellist, also a previous employee of LTV, shared an example of how they tried to implement some changes at the station following training they had received. This panellist was told by the permanent secretary to leave their ‘new professionalism’ at home and to continue to abide by the rules of the government. Soon after this incident, the said panellist left the station. An example of direct interference by the government was given by another panellist. LTV had decided to run a story on the MKM Burial Society, a Ponzi scheme that had collapsed. The MKM Group of Companies was shut down in November 2007 by the Central Bank of Lesotho after it emerged that the company was operating banking and insurance businesses in violation of the Financial Institution Act and Insurance Act, respectively. The panellist, then a news editor, was visiting South Africa when LTV decided to run the story in the nightly news. The panellist claims to have received a call from the minister, saying that he heard that reporters from LTV were taking pictures and collecting footage of the buildings which MKM owned. He then instructed the panellist to order staff not to take pictures of one particular building (one that the minister's friend owned) and to drop the story. The panellist informed the minister that the station would continue with the story and afterwards promptly received a telephone call from the permanent secretary, informing them of overstepping their mandate. The permanent secretary went to the studio and ‘pulled’ the story, including other stories that were on tape. As a result, there was no news broadcast that night. 39 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER LESOTHO 2018