death threats for comments she posted on social media about human rights violations in Lesotho. She had received similar threats on 10 June. wide. There were however at least two defamation cases regarding statements made on the radio stations Ts’enolo FM and MoAfrika FM. On 13 December, five members of the LDF went on trial for the attempted murder of the Lesotho Times editor Lloyd Mutungamiri in July 2016. He suffered near fatal gunshot wounds after being attacked outside his home in Maseru. The shooting followed his newspaper’s publication of an article claiming that the outgoing LDF head was to receive an exit package of USD3.5 million. The first case was against President of Youth League of the Alliance for Democrats (DC) political party Thuso Litjobo. In September, 2017 the high court of Lesotho cleared him of the charges following a series of postponements since January, 2017, on the grounds that “what Litjobo is alleged to have said did not constitute a criminal offence.” Litjobo had been accused of defaming Maseru Urban Assistant Commisioner of Police (ACP) Motlatsi Mapola. Owing to the vibrancy and influence of radio stations in reporting and agenda-setting, coupled with political polarisation in the country, elections were a very trying time for the broadcast sector in Lesotho. Freedom of expression in Lesotho has been steadily exercised through conventional and new media as well as by demonstrations on the part of civic and political groups on a range of policy issues. In the year under review, mostly social media and radio stations have exercised their freedom of speech country- 42 So This is Democracy? 2017 In a separate case, the owner of MoAfrika FM radio Ratabane Sebonomoea Ramainoane was ordered by police to release copies to them of a certain news bulletin containing defamatory allegations. However on 29 September 2017 the High of Court of Lesotho nullified an order by the Magistrates Court compelling the accused to release the copies of the news bulletin in question. PRINT MEDIA Print media developments in Lesotho have seen the migration from print-only to online versions of all major weeklies of the country. Public Eye, Lesotho Times, The Post and Moeletsi Oa Basotho all have a digital version. Lesotho still does not have a daily newspaper, and most papers in circulation are published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. On the alternate days there is a deficit of current news. On a positive note, Lesotho has seen one weekly tabloid focusing on news within the capital city, Maseru. The newspaper, published in English, is called Metro and it has been in circulation since December 2017.