Founded in 2019, The Night’s Watch is an independent, non-profit newsroom based in Maseru.
It is run as an independent private association.
The Night’s Watch was influenced by American news and opinion website the Huffington Post, South Africa’s BusinessLive and the Daily Maverick, among others.
We aspire to have an influential opinions section with an extensive network of op-ed contributors, and a focus on quality original content.
We believe that Lesotho’s young people are intelligent, insightful and informed, and should be given a platform to say their opinions.
We also believe that time has passed for the media to merely speak to the audience, the media now needs to and should speak and engage with the audience.
The Night’s Watch will be a forum for debate about the country and its politics.
We aspire to grow from a niche publication into the country’s foremost independent voice, tackling some of Lesotho’s thorniest issues.
However, our goal regarding opinions and comments is clear. We will not censor opposing views and opinions but rather nudge behaviour in the direction of civil dialogue.
This is what we will expect of our journalists, reporters and columnists, and what we will expect of our readers too.
We know the power words can yield.
After all, words from All Basotho Convention (ABC) leader Thomas Thabane in January 2019, at Ha Abia where he called Professor Nqosa Mahao “Sekatana”, changed the course of ABC’s and the nation’s history.
Before we publish, we will consider what we are saying.
Words can offer insight, they can inspire thought and action, they can excite and innovate but they can also tear down and break apart, they can terrorize and devastate.
Apart from expert analysis and commentary to help readers make sense of biggest stories The Night’s Watch will also be Lesotho’s premier news source, providing breaking news.
We will also focus on political analysis, investigative reporting, local arts, music and popular culture.
This means it will be part News 24, a bit Mail & Guardian, with a helping of Daily Maverick, but it is all home grown, serving up local news with fresh angels and international news with insight into why it matters to Lesotho.
Like how Anton Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism at Wits University and founding editor of the Mail & Guardian, described the Daily Maverick in 2011, The Night’s Watch will also be “a lively and valuable site, full of news, opinions and analysis.”
It will push the journalistic boundaries, and will be a shelter for homeless of journalism, who demand more freedom than they get in the staider newsroom.
Despite this maverick approach, we commit ourselves to the highest standards of independent journalism.
