Lesotho: spacciato per colpa del dispaccio

Come se non avessero abbastanza guai, gli abitanti del Lesotho (il nome significa il popolo che parla Sesotho), hanno a che fare con un regime di funzionari disposti a tutto per i soldi. Un nazione minuscola, completamente circondata dal Sudafrica, il Lesotho conta gli abitanti ufficiosamente (2 milioni nel censimento 2004) e poi "scala" il dieci percento a causa dell'alta mortalità per AIDS. Oggi assente dalle onde corte (i 4.800 kHz erano molto forti e anche la BBC aveva una stazione di ripetizione, ma gli impianti di Radio Lesotho sono troppo vecchi per essere riparati e la Beeb ha chiuso 12 anni fa), il paese si accontenta dell'FM e delle onde medie su 1197 kHz. Per esempio con Harvest FM, emittente religioso-inforfmativa della capitale Maseru.
Leggo su AllAfrica.com che Thabo Thakalekoala, giornalista freelance che lavorava per la stazione, rischia la pena di morte per aver letto ai microfoni di Harvest un messaggio sedizioso. Sembra che durante il suo programma qualcuno abbia fatto passare sotto la porta dello studio un foglio di carta. Contemporaneamente, Thabo riceve una telefonata: leggi in onda quel che c'è scritto o ti facciamo fuori. Il testo veniva dai militari dell'aviazione (aviazione in Lesotho?), che protestavano per il livello di corruzione del governo. Terminata la lettura Thabo esce dallo studio e appena messo piede in strada viene arrestato. Il World Press Freedom Committee ha dichiarato di voler finanziare la sua difesa.

[...] Upon the recommendation of the International Press Institute (IPI), the World Press Freedom Committee ( http://www.wpfc.org ) - an organization representing 45 press freedom groups from throughout the world - made a Fund Against Censorship grant to fund the legal defense of Thabo Thakalekoala, a Lesotho journalist who is unjustly in prison facing the death penalty.
Thakalekoala, a 45-year-old freelance print and radio journalist who has investigated several cases of corruption within the Lesotho government, was arrested on June 17, 2007 following a live broadcast of his morning radio show on Harvest FM Radio. The arrest was based on a letter he was forced to read out live on air, and he has since been charged with multiple criminal offences relating to the content of the letter, of which one of them, high treason, carries the death penalty.
While Thakalekoala was broadcasting his "Rise and Shine" morning show, a letter was pushed under his office door. Via a telephone call to the studio, Thakalekoala was told to read the contents of the letter live on air, or risk being immediately killed. Despite Thakalekoala's requests to speak with the author of the letter, all that the caller would disclose was that he represented members of the Army and Air Force of Lesotho who were disgruntled with corruption within the government, demanding the resignation of the country's prime minister and several members of his cabinet.
Under these circumstances, and after letting his audience know what was taking place, Thakalekoala read the letter to his listeners only to find himself under arrest shortly after his show was over. He was taken into custody, harshly interrogated for more than eight hours, charged with subversion and finally released on bail. But months later, he learned he had been charged with several other crimes, including high treason, sedition and criminal defamation.
"Obviously, when threatened with imminent death, this Lesotho radio broadcaster had no choice but to comply with the demand that he read the letter on the air," said Mark Bench, Executive Director of World Press Freedom Committee. "It seems incredible to us that the security forces of the government would even arrest or jail the threatened broadcaster, but that they would sanction his being sentenced to death is intolerable. We call upon the officials of the Kingdom of Lesotho to immediately rescind the sentence and dismiss all charges." [...]