The High Court in Zimbabwe on Thursday ordered the reopening of the country’s only independent daily newspaper, closed by the government last week for operating illegally.
Equipment seized in police raids at the offices of the Daily News, which has been highly critical of President Robert Mugabe, must also be returned, the court ordered.
“The provisional order is granted,” judge Yunus Omarjee told the court.
Supporters of the Daily News broke out in applause after the judge announced the ruling in a packed courtroom.
Omarjee’s ruling follows an urgent application by the owners of the newspaper, Associated Newspapers group, to have equipment returned and allow publication.
Sam Sipepa Nkomo, chief executive of the publishing group, said after the ruling that the Daily News would be back on the street on Friday as a small eight page edition.
“We want to have a paper tomorrow. We are working out something with our friends. Police have assured us they will cooperate,” Sipepa said.
Earlier, Adrian de Bourbon, an attorney for the Daily News, told Omarjee that the paper was entitled under the media laws to reopen until its registration application with the state media commission was completed. The owners applied for registration on Monday.
De Bourbon said police evicted the staff, removed equipment and occupied the offices without a warrant.
The paper printed only one edition since the Supreme Court ruled last Thursday that the failure to register meant the newspaper was illegal.
The closing of the Daily News came amid a government crackdown on dissent as Zimbabwe struggles with an economic collapse and international isolation.
More than 100 pro-democracy activists in Zimbabwe, detained overnight for staging a protest, were released from police custody on Thursday after paying a fine, march organisers and a lawyer said.
However, the chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), which organised the demonstration in central Harare on Wednesday, was still in custody, said NCA spokesperson Enerst Mudzengi.
He said the chairperson, Lovemore Madhuku, had refused to pay the fine of 5 000 Zimbabwe dollars (six US dollars).
Three freelance photojournalists, also arrested on Wednesday while covering the demonstration, were released, according to lawyer Lawrence Chibwe.
Police said they arrested the demonstrators and journalists for engaging in “conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace”.
The group had not obtained permission to hold the demonstration as required under the southern African country’s strict security laws.
Their march to Parliament was also to protest “the deteriorating political and economic situation in Zimbabwe,” said Douglas Mwonzora, another spokesperson for the NCA.
Last year, executives of the Daily News had refused to apply for the paper’s accreditation, saying the new media laws would stifle independent and foreign journalists and news organisations.
The paper challenged the media laws as unconstitutional in July, leading to last week’s Supreme Court ruling.
Since its launch in 1999, the Daily News has given a voice to critics of Mugabe’s 23-year rule.
In January 2001, the Daily News presses were destroyed in a bomb attack hours after Information Minister Jonathan Moyo described the paper as “a threat to national security which had to be silenced”.
The state controls the country’s two other dailies and the single television and radio station.
After the closure of the Daily News, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called for a boycott of the state media by readers and advertisers. – Sapa-AFP, Sapa-AP
Protesting activists, journalists arrested
Computers removed from paper’s offices
SA urged to push Zim to reopen paper
Editor-in-chief quits