A high court judge on Friday ordered President Robert Mugabe’s government and police to lift its illegal four-month ban on the Daily News, the country’s critical daily voice.
Judge Tendai Uchena granted a petition from Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the owners of the Daily News, to ”cease interfering with the operations of the paper, and to vacate the premises,” said Gugulethu Moyo, legal adviser to ANZ.
The administration has ignored all three previous rulings by the country’s courts to allow the paper to publish, since heavily-armed paramilitary police first stormed into its newsroom on September 12, drove out the journalists and then occupied its printing presses.
The Daily News is the country’s biggest-circulation daily newspaper with over a million readers.
Moyo said they were hoping to get a paper out as soon as possible.
”But it depends on whether police are interested in obeying the law. We have the backing of the court, but the question is, what will happen on the ground?”
Three weeks ago, the government was ordered to allow the Daily News to return to the streets and staff immediately went back to work, only to be driven out again.
Information minister Jonathan Moyo said the judge’s orders were ”academic”.
On October 19, the high court ordered the dissolution of the government’s Media Commission that issues ”licences” for the press to operate, and struck down the original banning order passed in September.
Immediately after the October ruling, thousands of copies of a surprise edition were snapped up by urban Zimbabweans before police invaded the paper’s offices to prevent any further publication.
Also on Friday, Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, appeared in the Harare Magistrate’s court for a routine remand hearing on allegations of treason. – Sapa