Online Newspapers, Live TV Channels, Radios

The traditional media outlets of Lesotho have flourished than the neighboring outlets because of the literate population. The country is a landlocked one and shares its borders with South Africa. The country is dominated by the government, particularly by the prime minister while the president is an executive who has almost no power at all to take decisions and implement policies. The natural landscape of the country is mountainous and come with some drawbacks such as the country is landlocked.

The media outlets in the country come with public and private initiatives. The private media started growing after 1998 and the growth did not stop at all. The country’s constitution has ensured the media freedom to a certain extent and the media outlets are allowed to broadcast and print their respective media to a certain stage. But the domination of the private media outlets is more here than the state-owned media. And it happened mostly for the quality of news and other information broadcast and printed on the outlets. In fact, they were highlighted by ensuring the political campaigns of all political parties.

Radio is the most popular media outlet in the country and there are several reasons for this. In fact, radio is accessible from many parts of the country and come up with a wide number of program and events are broadcast. The majority of the population have their access to radio and they are really fond of it. The radio outlet is under the domination of the government but it broadcast a wide number of issues freely. All the political parties get their respective broadcast through the radio outlet and there are no partialities is such issues.

The media outlets play important roles in various aspects. The media outlets often provide facilities for the political parties to run their campaign. And the media outlets do not take any charges for such electoral campaigns. This is a type of social service for the political parties as they are not financially stable to pay the costs.

Interestingly, the country has no daily newspaper. There are some weeklies and periodicals available here. Most of the media outlets use several languages for broadcast and publication. English is widely used here as a mode of communication. Some other local languages are also used for the publication purposes as well.

Though the media outlets enjoy a freedom of expression, they are often subject to humiliation from the ruling parties. Sometimes, the journalists are threatened for several reasons and they are mostly endangered for some special types of coverage. As a result, a notable number of media outlets try to maintain self-censorship. They maintain it to protect themselves.

At present, there are three newspapers are available in the country and none of them are dailies. They come either on the weekly or biweekly basis. The newspapers mostly contain a wide array of news and information for the readers. The readership of the newspapers is also higher than the neighboring states. The newspapers are published in several languages as well.

The country has only a television channel and that is run by the state. But the television channel broadcasts different types of programs and events for the nationwide audience. Some other foreign channels are also available in the country. But those are not accessible by everyone.

Twelve radio stations are under operation in the country and they are accessible from any parts of Lesotho. The radio’s broadcast a wide number programs and events. This is a nice mode of communication and the first choice for the people.

The use of the internet is also available in the country and the users are gradually increasing. They mostly use the internet for social communication and to know about the world happenings by browsing different news websites from home and abroad.