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More arrested in media blitz
26/10/2003 15:34 - (SA)
Harare - Police detained two newspaper owners, including a former judge and the relative of another in the latest crackdown on Zimbabwe's independent media.
Police arrested Associated Newspapers Zimbabwe director and retired high court judge Washington Sansole at his Bulawayo home early on Sunday said Gugulethu Moyo, the group's lawyer.
Police ordered he not be freed until all six executive members of the media group surrender themselves, Moyo said.
The crackdown follows the publishing on Saturday of the Daily News, owned by the company, after more than six weeks.
Zimbabwe's only independent daily was banned under sweeping media laws by a state commission which prohibits publication without its approval. But the commission's ban was overturned by the Administrative Court on Friday.
Within hours of the slim eight page edition hitting the streets on Saturday, police arrested 18 journalists and raided the Harare home of the company's chief executive, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, who was away attending a wedding. Officers instead took away his niece Tulepi Nkomo, 30.
The journalists were later released.
Moyo said the company had lost faith in the process of law. She feared the urgent applications to courts for injunctions on behalf of the closed newspaper or its victimized staff might be a waste of money.
State radio said the paper had been operating illegally.
The Daily News and its sister Sunday publication had not printed an edition since September 12, when armed police raided their offices. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said the papers were operating illegally.
The state controls the country's two other dailies and its only television and radio station.
- AP
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