MISA calls for thorough investigation into abduction and torture of Lesotho editor 

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Office condemns the alleged abduction, interrogation and brutal physical torture of Kananelo Boloetse.

Boloetse is the news editor of Newsday Media, and a prominent human rights defender, former Chairperson of MISA Lesotho, and a civic leader with the SECTION 2 coalition. 

Boloetse has also previously served on the MISA Regional Governing Council.

On Saturday, 5 September 2026, Boloetse was allegedly abducted from his home in Katlehong, Maseru, Lesotho, by three unidentified men. He was driven away, subjected to intense interrogation about his journalistic work and human rights activism, and then violently assaulted. 

His abductors issued chilling warnings, threatening that if their attacks were reported to the media, they would return and kill him. They subsequently abandoned him, gravely injured, in the remote area of Thaba Bosiu, 30 minutes outside the capital, Maseru. 

This is not an ordinary criminal assault, it is an act of tactical terror, a calculated attempt to silence a courageous editor and a direct assault on the collective right of the Basotho people to access to information of which the media is a critical component. 

MISA Regional notes with deep concern that such brutal acts do not occur in a vacuum. It represents a dangerous regression and an escalating pattern of intimidation aimed at forcing self-censorship on the media fraternity in Lesotho. 

This abduction comes shortly after Newsday Media suffered a severe cyberattack that disrupted its website and email services following its investigative reporting. It also occurs against the backdrop of critical civic efforts by SECTION 2 to demand clarity and public accountability regarding education financing in Lesotho.

This attack is a flagrant violation of Lesotho’s constitutional democracy and flies in the face of regional human rights instruments to which the Kingdom of Lesotho is a state party.

We remind the Government of Lesotho of its binding commitments under the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa (2019), adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). 

Principle 20 of the Declaration stipulates that:

“States Parties [shall] guarantee the safety of journalists and other media practitioners and take effective legal and other measures to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of attacks against journalists and other media practitioners, and ensure that victims have access to effective remedies.”

This obligation is further reinforced by the ACHPR Resolution on the Safety of Journalists and Media Practitioners in Africa (2020), which expresses severe alarm over:

“…the deteriorating situation facing journalists and other media practitioners in Africa, in particular, attacks on them, especially physical attacks and violations of the right to life, kidnappings, threats and intimidation…”

The resolution explicitly calls upon State Parties to “ensure the safety of journalists and other media professionals, and create a conducive environment for them to practise their profession” and to “investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of attacks against journalists… and ensure that victims have access to effective remedies”.

At the global level, the attack on Boloetse directly violates international standards designed to protect media professionals. 

The UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity notes with absolute clarity: “Every journalist killed or neutralised by terror is an observer less of the human condition. Every attack distorts reality by creating a climate of fear and self-censorship.”

The UN Plan of Action warns that “the curtailment of their expression deprives society as a whole of their journalistic contribution and results in a wider impact on press freedom, where a climate of intimidation and violence leads to self-censorship. In such a climate, societies suffer because they lack the information needed to fully realise their potential.”

It further stresses that impunity, defined as the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice, “perpetuates the cycle of violence against journalists and must be addressed.”

MISA Regional stands in unyielding solidarity with MISA Lesotho, Newsday Media and Boloetse. We refuse to allow violence and death threats to be normalised as responses to investigative journalism or civic accountability.

We call upon the Commissioner of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) to immediately launch a thorough, transparent and independent investigation into the abduction, torture and attempted murder of Boloetse. 

MISA demands that the Government of Lesotho publicly and unequivocally disavow this act of violence and provide concrete, effective guarantees of safety and protection for Boloetse, his family and the entire Newsday Media team. 

Those responsible for this heinous attack must be identified, prosecuted and held fully accountable. 

We remind the authorities in Lesotho that journalism is not a crime. Seeking accountability is not a crime. Defending human rights is not a crime.

When the truth is under siege, the entire region must stand together to defend it. MISA Regional remains seized with this matter and will continue to work with other partners to ensure justice for Boloetse.

MISA Regional Statement