(MISA/IFEX) – During the week of 13 to 17 September 2004, managers of the weekly Sesotho-language tabloid “Setsomi Sa Litaba” appeared in court four times to respond to a civil defamation charge for an article published in the14 April edition of the paper. “Setsomi Sa Litaba” is a sister publication of the English-language weekly “Mirror”. […]
(MISA/IFEX) – During the week of 13 to 17 September 2004, managers of the weekly Sesotho-language tabloid “Setsomi Sa Litaba” appeared in court four times to respond to a civil defamation charge for an article published in the14 April edition of the paper. “Setsomi Sa Litaba” is a sister publication of the English-language weekly “Mirror”.
“Setsomi Sa Litaba” is being sued for damages totaling Maloti 130,000 (approx. US$20,200) by lawyer Kananelo Mosito, acting on behalf of the plaintiff, Makhotso Tlali.
On 14 April, “Setsomi Sa Litaba” published an article entitled, “Bulane intervenes on behalf of the corpses”. According to sub-editor Caswell Tlali, the newspaper reported on an incident which occurred at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in the capital, Maseru, where hospital nurses allegedly swore and spat at corpses of members of the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) party following political turmoil in September 1998.
“The newspaper did not report Makhotso [Tlali] to have done these unorthodox things, but that she ululated and declared that the hospital would become a bottomless pit for members of the LCD,” Caswell Tlali said. He also reiterated that he was sub-editor of the newspaper at the time and went out of his way to confirm the issue with hospital authorities, who indicated that Makhotso Tlali had been reprimanded over the matter.
The trial judge, Justice Nthomeng Majara, adjourned the case to a later date in order to study both parties’ court submissions. The defence lawyer for the newspaper, Ngoya Thabane, maintains that since the hospital is a public place, the public had the right to know what was happening there.
