Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court has ruled that a private daily newspaper, which is critical of President Robert Mugabe’s government, is operating illegally because it has not registered under tough media laws, state radio said on Thursday.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku and a full bench of the court made the ruling after the Daily News, the country’s paper with the highest circulation, had challenged a section of the country’s media laws that requires news organisations to register with a government body.
The ruling means that the publishers of the Daily News, and its Sunday edition, the Daily News on Sunday, will have to register under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act before challenging the law.
Most other weekly independent papers in the country are believed to have already registered.
The section under dispute rules that a news organisation can only operate ”after registering and receiving a certificate of registration” from the government’s Media and Information Commission.
Failure to do so can see equipment impounded, a fine imposed or a prison term given.
Lawyers for the Daily News had argued that the rule was unconstitutional, the radio said.
The controversial law, signed by Mugabe in March last year, also compels journalists in the country to register with the body.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reported that, in making its ruling, the Supreme Court said it was ”not impressed” with the fact that the Daily News publishers had approached it ”while in open defiance of the law”. — Sapa-AFP