Representatives of the South African news media met a South African government delegation on Friday to raise concerns over threats to media freedom in Zimbabwe.
A delegation of the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), the African Editors Forum (AEF), and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) expressed their concern over the closure of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, the arrest of journalists and threats to the Zimbabwean chapter of Misa, Sanef said in a statement.
The government delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad and included senior Foreign Affairs officials.
Sanef urged the government to use its influence to have the actions against The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, journalists and media organisations such as Misa reversed. The delegation also urged the government to insist that the Zimbabwean government review its media legislation as promised to President Thabo Mbeki and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Sanef believes the actions of the Zimbabwean government fly in the face of the Windhoek Declaration, SADC protocols and African Union protocols.
According to the Sanef statement the government delegation noted Sanef’s concerns on developments in Zimbabwe, and undertook to raise these issues with the Zimbabwean government.
Government briefed the Sanef delegation on its own efforts to help normalise the situation in Zimbabwe and reaffirmed its commitment to freedom of the press and the role a free press can and should play in the resolution of the current socio-economic and political problems in Zimbabwe.
Both delegations agreed that the international community should spare no effort to help the people of Zimbabwe find a solution to the crisis in their country.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the embattled newspaper went to court on Friday to try to have confiscated equipment returned to the company.
Lawyer Adrian de Bourbon said they filed an urgent application in the Harare High Court, seeking to overturn a police search warrant that had allowed the authorities to seize equipment at the newspaper’s city offices.
”It was an application to have the search warrant declared invalid,” de Bourbon said. He said the judge was due to make a ruling on the application at 4:00 pm (14:00 GMT) on Monday.
Two weeks ago police shut down The Daily News and its printing presses after a court here ruled the paper was operating illegally by not being licensed with a state-appointed media commission.
The Daily News subsequently applied to register with the commission but was turned down.
The paper, which is a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government, is now likely to be off the streets for months while it tries to challenge the media commission’s refusal to register it. – Sapa-AFP