The new amendment seeks to give the Communications Minister the power to
revoke a license and close communication services if he believes that the
services may prejudice or endanger public interest. This can be done without
a hearing.

The powers vested in the minister will also translate into denying access to any government information requested by a journalist for publication purposes, if the minister feels such publication will shake national security.

This comes against the background that MISA Lesotho has been calling for the
Receipt and Access of Information Bill to be passed. The bill has stalled for more than six years as the government was seemingly getting their tools to tighten the screws on very limited freedom that the media in Lesotho has
come to enjoy.

Before 2004, the Lesotho Communications Authority, formerly the Lesotho
Telecommunications Authority, had full power to grant and revoke licences
and to allocate frequency spectrums to broadcasting houses without the
interference of the minister.

Harvest FM, a radio station that is critical of the government and gives voice to the marginalised who are denied equal access to the state media, has received a flurry of threats of closure from the LCA including the recent demand that the station show cause within sixty days why it should not be closed.

MISA Lesotho is against this amendment on the LCA Act and calls on the
parliament of Lesotho, the civil society and the media to work towards
abortion of this amendment if full democracy is to be realised.

Source: MISA Lesotho

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