Amnesty International on Tuesday called on authorities in Lesotho to investigate the reported abduction and assault of journalist Kananelo Boloetse. Boloetse, who has widely covered human rights issues, was abducted from his home in Maseru on September 5, and apparently tortured and severely beaten as a result of his investigative journalism.
Lerato Peggy Matheka, Boloetse‘s employer at Newsday Media, said the attack seemed to be designed to not only harm Boloetse, but to also frighten the newsroom into silence. In a statement regarding the situation, Vongai Chikwanda, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, said:
Journalists and human rights defenders must be able to carry out their work freely and safely. Violence, threats or intimidation against those exercising their right to freedom of expression should never be tolerated and must not go unpunished.
As editor-in-chief at Newsday Media, launched by Matheka in 2017, Boloetse oversees journalists covering governance, public accountability and development issues. Boloetse himself had been investigating state institutions and has demanded transparency from those in power regarding education financing in Lesotho.
Additionally, he gained national prominence as an outspoken advocate for free education, economic restructuring, and the protection of human rights.
According to a statement released by Newsday, three unidentified men took Boloetse to a remote location, after neighbors had seen a suspicious vehicle monitoring his house hours before the abduction. After the attack, the perpetrators abandoned Boloetse in the Thaba-Bosiu area, where he later regained consciousness and made his way to a nearby road, despite his severe injuries, where a passing driver was able to pick him up.
Boloetse’s abduction came days after a cyberattack disrupted Newsday’s website and email services.
The attack on Boloetse is unfortunately not an isolated one in Lesotho. Lloyd Mutungamiri, an editor for the Lesotho Times, was ambushed in 2016 by military personnel after his publication of an article exposing excessive power wielded by the Lesotho Defense Force (LDF). Although he was shot multiple times in the face and body, he survived the attacks. In 2020, two Newsday reporters were assaulted by armed Lesotho Mounted Police Service officers while covering the Bacha Shutdown movement, a youth-led social campaign protesting against gender-based violence and high unemployment rates.
Attacks on journalistic freedom have increased worldwide in the past decade despite its codification under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Governments increasingly use strategic lawsuits against public perception, arbitrary detention, and restrictive legislation to suppress reporting. The 2026 Reporters without Borders World Press Freedom Index has found that over half of the world’s countries now fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom, a 25-year low.
