The Minister of Information, Communications, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ms. Nthati Moorosi says the Broadcasting Code, 2022 will serve as one of the tools to iron out issues of journalism as a profession.

Ms. Moorosi said this when responding to the presentation of the Lesotho Communication Authority (LCA) on Broadcasting Code 2022 held at Avani Maseru on Friday.

The Broadcasting Code 2022 is intended to bring back professionalism and ethics among media personnel. It was introduced in April 2022 and its window period is in April 2024.

She expressed her gratitude to LCA for bringing up the code, saying it is crucial for journalists to portray professionalism and ethics in their field of work. She added that it is disappointing to see how bad it has turned nowadays with some of the Journalists who do not practice Journalism ethics.

The Minister said to respond to some of the challenges and make sure to reverse the situation, there will be fully funded training for 160 Journalists as a start and the rest will follow.

She added that even for the management of the media houses, there will also be high-level training to make sure that they understand what is expected of them.

Presenting the Broadcasting Code 2022, LCA Licencing and Compliance Manager, Mr. Tankiso Mohobo highlighted the crucial matters in the code as editorial independence, fairness, accuracy and impartiality, controversial news, information and issues of public importance, privacy and dignity, political party broadcast and advertisement amongst others.

He said with the presence of the Broadcast Code, they hope much positivity will be seen in media houses in terms of news accuracy and change of behaviour.

Present at the event included the LCA Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Nizam Goolam, ministry and LCA Senior Officers, Radio Stations’ Managers and journalists.

Source: LENA 17/02/2023