By Masthembiso Lechela Mphezulu
Just in the wake of 2025, MISA Lesotho is geared towards reintroducing the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) programme in the Mountain Kingdom, under the auspice of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Regional Office for Southern Africa (UNESCO – ROSA) .
This time around, MISA Lesotho intends to lead a process towards development of a comprehensive national policy on Media and Information Literacy.
The envisaged MIL policy, according to MISA Lesotho’s Programmes Adviser Mr Mzimkhulu Sithetho, will act as a guide for all stakeholders, that include Lesotho’s government, private sector, judiciary, legislature, civil society and labour among others.
At first, in August 2022, MISA Lesotho introduced MIL as a strategic initiative designed primarily by UNESCO to impart knowledge, skills and techniques for citizens to access the huge inflows of information coming from various sources – legacy media, social media and other digital platforms.
Now, Mr Mzimkhulu has said the objective of MIL “…is to create a society that is able to interpret, analyse and most importantly, make informed choices on the type of information they need to consume”.
This, he continues;”comes at the backdrop of the infamous information disorder comprising misinformation, disinformation and mal-information. These are the negative frontiers against free expression as a right.”
For his part, the National Director for MISA Lesotho, Mr Lekhetho Makhanya Ntsukunyane, said at the moment, the Institute was establishing a National Steering Committee on MIL, “through engagement of different shades of society for building an inclusive, participatory and multi-faceted, but targeted process towards development of the MIL Policy”.
The purpose of the National Steering Committee will be to lead the process towards development of the MIL policy. This project, Mr Ntsukunyane has indicated it will end in May 2025.
