Zimbabwean police on Wednesday complied with a court order and finally left the printing works of independent newspaper the Daily News for the first time since it was shut down in September, the newspaper’s legal adviser said.
“They vacated within about two hours of us serving them with the order,” Gugulethu Moyo said after the Harare High Court ordered police earlier on Wednesday to leave the premises of the newspaper and allow it to resume publishing.
“We hope to get a paper on the streets tomorrow,” said Moyo.
The Daily News — a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government — was forcibly shut down by armed police in September last year after the Supreme Court ruled it was operating illegally because it was not registered with a state-appointed media commission.
Since then, the paper’s lawyers have been shuttling between the country’s courts battling to get authorisation for the paper to re-open.
On several occasions, the courts have ruled in favour of the paper, but the police have ignored rulings ordering them to allow it to resume publishing.
The Daily News was the country’s most popular daily, with a readership of at least 900 000.
There are three other dailies: two state-run dailies, The Herald and The Chronicle, and a small private daily, the Daily Mirror. — Sapa-AFP
Cops must stop dogging Daily News