(MISA/IFEX) – On the morning of 30 June 2005, Masupha Jobo, presenter of the phone-in talk show “Lijo’a Ke Baeti”, broadcast on Catholic Radio (CR) FM, and the station’s manager, Sister Clementine Thatho, received threatening calls in connection with the programme that Jobo was hosting that day. The programme focused on the issue of the […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On the morning of 30 June 2005, Masupha Jobo, presenter of the phone-in talk show “Lijo’a Ke Baeti”, broadcast on Catholic Radio (CR) FM, and the station’s manager, Sister Clementine Thatho, received threatening calls in connection with the programme that Jobo was hosting that day.
The programme focused on the issue of the King’s brother, Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso, being appointed Lesotho’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. This has been a hotly debated issue in Lesotho as most people have questioned how the prince, who is also the principal chief of Matsieng Royal Village in Maseru, could assume a political position.
Jobo’s programme sought to get the public’s views and comments on the issue. During the broadcast, anonymous calls were made to the presenter and the station manager, insinuating that CR FM was becoming more opposed to the government and that Jobo had no business in the studio if he was to run programmes that were anti-government.
“This is not the first incident. Even members of the National Security Services have approached me to complain that Jobo was anti-government. We no longer know what we are supposed to run on air. One wonders whether we are expected to run religious programmes only and not issues of national importance and concern,” Thatho told MISA Lesotho.
MISA Lesotho has an agreement with the station management allowing it to use one of Jobo’s programme slots to focus on the theme: “The Role of the Media in a Democratic Dispensation”. This agreement is based on the need to create an understanding of the role played by the independent media in Lesotho.
As the station manager pointed out, this is not the first media freedom violation against CR FM. On 27 May, Jobo, who also hosts “Tsa Kajeno”, a sports show broadcast on CR FM, was summoned out of the studio to appear before the CR FM management and a delegation of the Lesotho Football Association (LEFA), which was comprised of the LEFA chief executive officer, Kholoang Mokalanyane, and a member of the LEFA executive committee, Thabo Pule. The LEFA delegation complained that Jobo was promoting negative publicity about the national soccer body in his programme.
MISA Lesotho subsequently contacted the LEFA public relations officer, T?iu Monne, who declined to comment on the incident. MISA Lesotho also put it on record that everything aired on Jobo’s programme was already public knowledge and was an issue of public concern and interest. It further condemned this incident, citing that the media is not a tool subscribing to any organisation’s needs, wants or demands, but solely to the needs, wants and demands of the public.
The national chapter maintained that it was prudent and incumbent upon the media to keep the public informed on matters that directly affect them. On the same note, it reiterated that the onus was on the management of media houses not to be intimidated and not to succumb to petty threats, based on personal rather than public interests.
