The SABC News correspondent Nthakoana Ngatane has been forced to flee Lesotho after several threats were made on her life as she tried to cover the political unrest that has engulfed the mountain kingdom.
Nthakoana Ngatane fleeing Lesotho is the latest case of intimidation and violence against the press in that country where journalists struggle to report on the tumultuous political uncertainty gripping the country that landlocked by South Africa.
In 2016 several journalists were forced to flee Lesotho, with two radio stations that were arbitrarily ordered to be shut down a few months ago by Lesotho's minister of communications. In 2016 the editor of the Lesotho Times was shot and injured.
Lesotho's media freedom is once again in the spotlight following news on Wednesday that a South African Broadcasting Corporation correspondent, Nthakoana Ngatane, had to flee the country following numerous threats on her life.
Nthakoana Ngatane told the SABC's Channel Africa radio station that the Lesotho government "don't condemn attacks on journalists".
"Journalists in Lesotho are under threat on the streets, not from the administration. Not from official channels, from the streets, from hooligans who take advantage and who listen to leaders who sometimes say one word against a journalist."
"When I get phone calls from people who say 'We know where you life' I have to flee for my life," she said.
"The Lesotho government must come out and clearly condemn when they know that journalists have been threatened. They must come out clearly and state that they will not tolerate such acts."
Across Africa freedom of speech is once a big flash point for the continent's citizens - both for the press as well as ordinary citizens and artists who are having their right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech being threatened.
In South Africa, Eastern Cape traditional leaders are furious that the controversial film Inxeba (The Wound) has been submitted as South Africa's possible entry into the Oscar's best foreign language film category.
They want the film banned and is mulling a possible court interdict to stop it's distribution.
In Tanzania a shocking new law is on the verge of quietly being passed that enables that country's communications authority to block social media users.
Tanzania's Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations 2017 bill,if signed by that country's information minister, will become law under which any social media users and bloggers face hefty fines and jail time if they post content that's deemed offensive.
The broad classification is anything that's deemed "indecent, obscene, hate speech, extreme violence or material that will offend or incite others, cause annoyance, threaten, or encourage or incite crime, or lead to public disorder".
Tanzanians won't be able to publish online or on social media anything that "portrays hate propaganda, threatens national security or sparks a health crisis, racial tension or violence, touching on possible terror attacks" and radio stations, TV and other digital platforms - including bloggers and website managers will have to apply for registration.
Meanwhile satellite pay-TV providers like MultiChoice are having a tough time as the censorship boards in several countries from Nigeria to Kenya have randomly started to order certain content from TV channels carried on services like DStv - ranging from E! Entertainment to Cartoon Network and Disney - off the air.
It's problematic since TV channel distributors often have only one channel feed into Africa. Content that can't be shown and is ordered to be removed on channels like TLC Entertainment, Nickelodeon or Disney XD in one African country, means that it's removed from linear broadcasting for all African viewers across the continent.
