Daily News journalists cleared

Daily News journalists cleared - Nkomo

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWEAN prosecutors have withdrawn charges against 44 journalists from the banned Daily News and Daily News on Sunday newspapers who were on trial for working without accreditation.

Zimbabwean journalists are expected to register with a government-appointed Media and Information Commission.

The journalists' trial should have started on 12 October but was put back before Tuesday's announcement by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe chief, Sipepa Nkomo, that prosecutors had withdrawn their case "in embarrassment."

Legal experts say it was always going to be a tall order for prosecutors to sustain a case against the journalists following the acquittal of another Daily News scribe, Kelvin Jakachira, whose trial was seen as a test case.

Jakachira was cleared at the end of August.

"The government is too embarrassed to proceed with the prosecution so they decided to let the case slowly die a natural death," Nkomo said.

Reporters Without Borders, an organisation defending journalists worldwide said it received the news with "relief".
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