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Dec. 28, 2018

4 min read

Army accuse reporter of spying

Army accuse reporter of spying

Pascalina Kabi

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… but journalists are enraged by army’s strong worded and threatening letter A war of words erupted between the Lesotho army and media fraternity after the army accused journalist of spying and fermenting hatred within the army. But the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) threat towards a Lesotho Times reporter, Pascalinah Kabi, did not sit well with local and international media, especially after the army public affairs officer Lt Colonel Mashili Mashili reminded the reporter about her former editor, Lloyd Mutungamiri who was shot by soldiers for story about the then commander of the army.

Mutungamiri was shot and left for dead by army members at his home, allegedly for a story that the newspaper had published about the former army commander Lt General Tlali Kamoli’s exit package that was said to be on a negotiation table between the LDF and the government at the time, “we understand that the editorial and staff at your paper are hurting as a result of what happened to your editor some time ago”. Tsebo Matsasa, national director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Lesotho Chapter, said the organisation was engaged in talks with LDF to try and solve a conflict between the newspaper, the reporter and the army.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has appealed to Prime Minister Tom Thabane to repudiate threats made by the military against Kabi and ensure that the press can function without fear of reprisal. Kabi’s story the newspaper on November 29 was about the demand for compensation made by soldiers who were accused of mutiny between May and July 2015 by the government at the time. The 45 soldiers, some of whom were detained and allegedly tortured, were reinstated in the LDF in February 2018.

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In his letter dated December 5 and addressed to Kabi, Lt Colonel Mashili said on November 27, Kabi called the office of the LDF Public Affairs requesting an interview, stating that she had gathered that there were members of the LDF who were unhappy that their compensation demand was not being processed by the office of the Chief of Defence staff “and little did we (LDF) know that you already had in your possession the classified security document belonging to the army.”
The letter warned Kabi that she chose to infiltrate the LDF with the aim to spy on it while she knew very well the proper channels all journalists normally follow when inquiring about issues pertaining to the institution, adding that the LDF would not tolerate spies shrouded in media cloaks and there were solid grounds to suspect that what she had done in concert with the people she colluded with was tantamount to serious breach of the laws governing the security of the country.
“Furthermore, we would like to seize this opportunity to put it to you that the LDF command is subject to the civil authority which is the government of the day, and that being the case, the latter has given the LDF command a clear mandate: Unite the LDF personnel and lead them under a unified command structure. That is why we feel duty bound to put it in no uncertain terms that anyone, individually or any form of groupings, who dare to torpedo the LDF command’s initiatives to accomplish that mandate, the LDF will not take that laying down,” said the letter.
The letter added: “What you have committed in concert with those who gave you that document constitute acts endangering security of this country. Put it in simpler terms, it is illegal to have document in question in your possession, and you were fully aware that the disclosure of its contents put the cohesion of the Defence Force at peril and make it fail in the discharge of its mandate to the nation. The LDF as a legal institution of the state will do everything in its power to establish how it ended up in your hands.”

The CPJ’s Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal said in her correspondent to Prime Minister Thabane: “We urge the government of Prime Minister Tom Thabane not to tolerate threats by the military aimed at silencing the press and to publicly defend the right of journalists to publish articles in the public interest … given Lesotho's history of instability and coups, its citizens have every right to be informed of the potential for instability when it comes to the affairs of the military."

However, in his response tom the CPJ, government spokesperson Nthakeng Selinyane said: “All I can authoritatively say is any impression of suppression of right of persons to express themselves about their workplace environment, and intimidation of media probing into the workings of any public institution or organization is contrary to the ethos of this government as a general rule, and the security establishment shan't be a holy cow in this regard."

According to Tsebo Matsasa “threats to media are worrying especially when there is still a pending case that involves shooting of an editor allegedly by the members of the Lesotho Defense Force."

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