A Zimbabwe court on Monday postponed till later this week a ruling on an application by the country’s only independent daily newspaper to have confiscated equipment returned, a company official said.
The Daily News had made an urgent court application to have equipment returned that was seized by police more than a week ago after the paper was found to be operating illegally.
Gugulethu Moyo, the paper’s legal director, said the judge Monday told Daily News lawyers that before he could make a ruling they had to first serve court papers on the magistrate who issued police with a warrant to seize the equipment.
The paper is seeking to have that warrant overturned. Moyo said the matter had now been postponed until 3:00pm (13:30 GMT) on Wednesday.
The Daily News was shut down two weeks ago because it had not registered with a state-appointed media commission, as required under strict press laws.
When the paper subsequently applied to register it was turned down.
Moyo said a court in Harare was Wednesday also due to hear an application by the Daily News to have an appeal against the media commission’s refusal to register it heard urgently. – Sapa-AFP