Zimbabwe’s Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku on Thursday postponed a ruling on an urgent government application to ban Zimbabwe’s biggest newspaper, the Daily News, but did not announce a new date for a hearing, lawyers said.
”He (the judge) has reserved judgement. He did not grant an order at all,” Daily News lawyer Mordecai Mahlangu told journalists after Chidyausiku heard the arguments in chambers in a little more than a
quarter of an hour.
The government-appointed Media and Information Commission made an urgent application two weeks ago to again halt the Daily News from publishing after it resumed operations on January 22.
The paper, a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe’s government, had been shut down last September for failing to register with a state-appointed media commission, but resumed operations last month after a high court ruling ordered police to end their occupation of its printing works. – Sapa-AFP