The Daily News' hearing date set

The Daily News' hearing date set

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By Guthrie Munyuki

ZIMBABWE’S Administrative Court has set the dates for a hearing in which the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) is challenging the denial of a licence to publish its two titles by the Media and Information Commission (MIC).

ANZ are the publishers of the banished independent daily - The Daily News and its sister paper, The Daily News On Sunday.

The Administrative Court has set September 21 and 22 as the hearing dates in this case which comes after the MIC denied ANZ the licence when it ruled that it had contravened certain sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

The MIC said ANZ had committed an inexcusable offence by continuing to publish its two titles between January 2003 and September 2003 despite the company's refusal to register with the media regulatory body.

But in its papers filed in the Adminstrative Court, ANZ argued that the MIC had no legal basis to deny both The Daily News and Daily News On Sunday licences because the MIC, in denying them a licence, had merely looked back at the issues dealt with the Supreme Court when it first ruled in 2003 that ANZ was operating outside the law.

At the time, the Supreme Court ruled that ANZ was approaching the courts with dirty hands and had to comply by registering with the MIC which went on to deny the group a licence after it had complied with the law.

The Daily News and Daily News On Sunday were shut down on September 12, 2003, when the Supreme ruled that ANZ was operating illegally. Since then, the newspaper group says it has spent 182 000 Euros (Z$10 billion) on legal fees.

Dozens of journalists have been arrested and four newspapers closed since AIPPA became law in 2002.
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