A court in Zimbabwe has ordered that the state-run media commission reconsider an application by the banned Daily News to begin printing again, the state-controlled Herald said on Thursday.
High Court Judge Rita Makarau on Wednesday set aside the Media and Information Commission (MIC)’s decision last year not to grant the Daily News, once Zimbabwe’s best-selling daily, a licence, the paper said.
The newspaper has been off the streets since September 2003, when police closed it down for operating without a licence.
Under strict media laws introduced shortly after President Robert Mugabe’s victory in elections in 2002, all newspapers and reporters have to apply for licences with the MIC.
Critics of the laws say they were designed to silence voices critical to the Mugabe government. But the authorities maintain that the media sector needs stringent regulation because Western countries want to use the media to bring about regime change here.
Four newspapers have been shut down since the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) was passed. The MIC went on to deny the Daily News a licence last July.
The Herald said that lawyers for the MIC conceded ”there could have been a perception of bias, without any actual bias” when the case was heard before Judge Makarau.
Lawyers for the Daily News had asked for the current MIC to be disbanded, and a new commission set up. But Makarau said she did not have the power to order that.
Dozens of newspaper staff were put out of work when the Daily News was closed down. Some reporters from the paper claim they are still trying to get money owed to them by the management. – Sapa-DPA