|
Daily News director released
27/10/2003 21:03 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe police on Monday released a director of the Daily News, the country's only independent daily, a day after he was arrested and charged with publishing an unlicensed newspaper, the paper's legal adviser said.
Gugulethu Moyo said that Washington Sansole was released from police custody in Zimbabwe's second largest city Bulawayo after a judge "granted an order compelling his release."
Sansole was arrested on Sunday, a day after the Daily News, which is a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, published a comeback edition six weeks after being closed down by the authorities.
But hours after enthusiastic readers snapped up copies of the bestselling newspaper, police shut down their offices and briefly detained 18 staff members.
On Monday four of the paper's nine directors presented themselves to a police station in Harare. They were still being detained by late afternoon on Monday.
"We're going to file an urgent application to the high court to secure their release," said Moyo. She said the paper's directors had given statements to the police and there was no need to detain them.
The Daily News published an eight-page edition after a court ruled that it should be licensed with a state media commission.
The Media and Information Commission (MIC) had refused to register the paper after the Daily News challenged the constitutionality of the registration law in the Supreme Court.
- AFP
|
