A high court judge in the western city of Bulawayo on Friday ruled that Zimbabwe ‘s Daily News, the country’s sole independent daily voice, be allowed to publish again after being banned by authorities since September.
The decision by judge Selo Nare, head of the administrative court, a branch of the high court, against President Robert Mugabe’s propaganda department to force the closure of the newspaper that has provided Zimbabweans with detailed coverage of the regime’s rule, was in spite of threats of ”serious suffering” against him and his family if he ruled against the government.
Gugulethu Moyo, legal adviser to Associated Newspapers, which owns the nearly five-year-old critical paper, said Nare ordered on Friday that the government obey a high court instruction in October by another court in Harare which overturned a state banning order on the Daily News, the country ‘s biggest selling daily paper.
The government appealed against the October ruling and claimed that its appeal suspended the ruling and effectively maintained a ban on the paper imposed in September. Nare said in his judgement that his decision to allow the newspaper to publish again applied ”notwithstanding any appeal that might be lodged.”
”I’m very happy,” Moyo said. ”It means we can get back on the street as soon as we practically can.”
However, she cautioned: ”I also feel anxious about it because you wonder what they (the government) is going to do next.
”It’s a kind of too-good-to-be-true feeling.”
The judgement was the latest in the Daily News’ struggle to survive in the face of a campaign by the government and Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party to crush the outspoken tabloid.
It has been bombed twice, its editors and scores of journalists have been arrested, many of them tortured and even vendors have been assaulted for selling the paper.
In September, heavily armed paramilitary police stormed the newspaper’s offices and closed it down.
Subsequent orders to allow it to publish and for the return of confiscated equipment were ignored, while the state Media Commission refused to grant it a licence to publish, effectively banning it.
On October 24, judge Michael Majuru of the Harare administrative court ruled that the state Media Commission, controlled by information minister of state Jonathan Moyo, was ”biased” in refusing the newspaper a licence.
He also said that the commission was ”improperly constituted,” which lawyers said meant that its banning order was ”null and void.” – Sapa