Mothepane Kotele

Identities of News-workers in a State-owned Newspaper: a Case Study of Lentsoe La Basotho / Lesotho Today Mothepane Kotele

This study is premised on the hypothesis that while Lesotho is a democratic country, the power of the government to employ and fire strips news-workers of their autonomy as professionals. The main interest is to understand the complexity of negotiating the news-workers' role identities. The idea is to understand how the news-workers see themselves, amidst conflicting identities where they are, on the one hand media professionals, on the other hand public servants whilst they also sometimes have to take on the identity of becoming government communication tools. This issue speaks to the heart of journalism professionalism particularly in the debates around the role of media in democracy and how state ownership and control impedes on such role.