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Zim Daily News raided again
22/09/2003 21:35 - (SA)
Harare - Police in Zimbabwe on Monday made a fresh raid on the offices of Zimbabwe's only private daily, while four of the paper's publishers were charged for illegally operating a media business, an official said.
Gugulethu Moyo, legal advisor of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) - the publishers of the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday - said police had returned to the offices armed with a search warrant and were seizing more equipment.
Hours earlier, four of the paper's nine directors had been questioned and charged with publishing a paper without a licence as is required by strict media laws passed last year in the southern African country.
"Four directors of ANZ were called in (by the police) for questioning... (and) charged for running a mass media service without a licence," Gugulethu Moyo told a news conference.
Under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), signed into law by President Robert Mugabe soon after his re-election last year, all newspapers and journalists must be registered with a state-appointed media commission.
Last week police closed the Daily News and confiscated its equipment after the Supreme Court ruled it was operating illegally because it had not applied for a licence.
The Daily News promptly applied for a licence - but was turned down straight away.
The High Court had last week ruled that the paper could continue publishing and that the seized equipment be returned.
Some of the equipment was returned to the paper's offices in central Harare, according to officials.
Meanwhile the state, which had filed an appeal against the High Court order, did not show up at the appeal hearing on Monday morning.
The shutdown of the Daily News has sparked international and local outrage.
- SAPA
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