Lesotho News Agency (LENA)

The Lesotho News Agency (LENA) is Lesotho’s state news agency, established in 1985 to collect and distribute news from across the country. It supplies news to domestic and foreign media outlets, government institutions and private clients, and beyond its core newswire function it has also been associated with government publications including Lentsoe la Basotho (Lesotho Today) and Lesotho Weekly. It operates as a unit of central government rather than as an autonomous public news agency.

Media assets

News agency: LENA

Publishing: Lentsoe La Basotho, Lesotho Weekly

Ownership and governance

LENA is wholly owned by the Government of Lesotho, operating under the Department of Information within the Ministry of Information, Communications, Science, Technology and Innovation. According to the agency’s own account, it was established in 1985 with a single office in Mohale’s Hoek in the south and another in Leribe in the north, and was officially handed over to the Government of Lesotho by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1990. The Director General is appointed directly by the ministry, with final oversight resting with the Deputy Principal Secretary, and no independent governance board exists to oversee the agency’s management or output.

The State Media Monitor 2025 baseline records that, in April 2025, civil-society organisations led by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Lesotho) called for the transformation of LENA into an autonomous public news agency with an independent board and an editorial charter, a proposal to which the ministry had not formally responded as of that baseline. The communications portfolio is held by Nthati Moorosi (Revolution for Prosperity), minister since November 2022 in the government of Prime Minister Sam Matekane. Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy in which King Letsie III is the ceremonial head of state.

Source of funding and budget

LENA’s operations are financed almost entirely through state subsidies. As recorded in the State Media Monitor 2025 baseline, drawing on Ministry of Finance figures, the agency’s government allocations have remained flat in nominal terms across the most recently disclosed years.

No updated standalone figure for the 2024/2025 or 2025/2026 fiscal year was identified, and the procurement records reviewed in the baseline indicate that LENA has continued to operate on a flat annual subsidy, without a material increase for inflation or operational expansion.

Any subscriber or content-distribution revenue appears marginal relative to the state subsidy, leaving the agency reliant on the public purse. The State Media Monitor 2025 baseline further records that persistent staff complaints about low pay and outdated equipment resurfaced in a leaked internal memo in May 2025, prompting calls within Parliament for increased funding and improved working conditions at the agency.

Editorial independence

LENA’s editorial direction remains firmly under state control. State Media Monitor review indicates that the agency’s output is closely aligned with government information priorities, with limited space for critical or opposition-focused coverage, particularly regarding government performance, corruption or dissent. Staffing and editorial roles sit within the government and ministry personnel structure, and no editorial charter or internal policy exists to safeguard autonomy or ethical reporting standards.

There is no statute guaranteeing LENA’s editorial independence, and no external review body is tasked with monitoring its output; editorial lines are coordinated with the ministry’s communications strategy through the Department of Information. The wider press-freedom environment is constrained: Reporters Without Borders describes press freedom in Lesotho as fragile, notes that the state media remain largely controlled by the government and politicians, and records that the country has no daily newspaper. The MISA Lesotho proposal to convert LENA into an autonomous public agency with an independent board and editorial charter remained the principal reform demand during the cycle.

AI and digital policy

LENA distributes its newswire content to clients and publishes news through its website and social-media channels alongside its traditional wire service, extending the reach of government information to domestic and international audiences. The agency has identified ageing equipment as an operational constraint, and modernisation of its technical capacity remained an outstanding issue during the cycle.

No publicly available LENA policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified. Lesotho’s media-regulatory framework does not currently include sector-specific provisions governing AI-generated content, deepfakes, or synthetic-media authentication standards.

May 2026