On 18 July, the Media and Information Commission (MIC) refused to grant Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) an operating licence to resume publication of the Daily News and its sister paper, the Daily News on Sunday, both of which were shut down in September 2003 for violating sections of the 2002 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Under the law, all independent journalists and news media are required to register with the government-controlled MIC.

According to information before IPI, the MIC again accused ANZ of failing to register the Daily News with the Commission, employing unaccredited journalists, and not depositing copies of the newspaper with them. On 14 March 2005, the Zimbabwean Supreme Court ruled that the MIC should reconsider its 2003 decision to deny registration to the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday.

Last week, the MIC also refused to allow the independent weekly, The Tribune, to resume publishing. In its decision, the MIC said the paper had failed to show it had enough capital to resume publication. The Tribune was suspended for one year in June 2004 for allegedly violating the AIPPA.

“We strongly condemn the MIC’s refusal to allow Zimbabwe’s only independent daily to resume publishing,” Johann Fritz, Director of IPI said. “This is a flagrant violation of everyone’s right to ‘to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as set down in Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.”

“The MIC’s decision is quite clearly part of a concerted campaign by the Zimbabwean government to silence critical voices,” Fritz added. “We call on the authorities to ensure that the Daily News, the Daily News on Sunday, and The Tribune are allowed to resume publication immediately and unconditionally.”