The publisher of a banned Zimbabwean newspaper said on Friday that he will go to court next week to challenge the closure of his weekly.
Kindness Paradza, publisher of the outspoken Tribune newspaper, said the Harare High Court will on Monday hear his challenge to the year-long closure of the paper announced on June 10 by a state-appointed media commission.
”What they did is unjustified and unlawful. It was overzealous,” said Paradza.
The official Media and Information Commission (MIC), which registers all newspapers and journalists in the country, announced it was suspending the paper’s licence because its owners had failed to notify it of a change in ownership.
Paradza had recently bought the company that published two newspapers, a business and a weekend paper, and then combined them into a single newspaper — The Tribune.
Under Zimbabwe’s strict press laws the state-appointed MIC has to be notified of such changes.
Last year the popular Daily News, a harsh critic of the government, was closed down for violating the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, a law brought in shortly after President Robert Mugabe’s controversial re-election in 2002.
In a statement issued this week, the MIC said the Tribune‘s licence was also cancelled because of questions over the shares issued by the newspaper.
The government has accused Paradza, who is also a ruling party lawmaker, of undermining party policies by seeking financial backing for the paper from former colonial power Britain. – Sapa-AFP