ANZ lawyers seek decisive court order on licence

ANZ lawyers seek decisive court order on licence

• Daily News takes Jokonya to court

• Mahoso has subversive papers in his sights

• MIC ordered to reconsider ANZ application

• Conrad Nyamutata: May the real WMDs stand up, Cde Jokonya!

• Mahoso gets second term

• Daily News journalists cleared - Nkomo

• Maphenduka quits MIC in protest

• Daily News hearing moved after MIC protest

• The Daily News' hearing date set

• Jakachira beats Aippa in test case

• Banned Daily News journalist's trial opens

• Daily News' demise: was it an inside job?

• Conrad Nyamutata: The Daily News - Zimbabwe's candle in the wind

• Daily News denied licence to publish

• No licence for suspended Tribune

• Court upholds Tribune closure

• Daily News journalists denied accreditation

• Daily News set to rise from ashes

• Supreme Court clears way for Daily News return

• Daily News ordered to pay £2bln to retrenched workers

• Daily News wins defamation suit against Moyo

• Judge offered farm to shut down Daily News

By Staff Reporter

THE Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) has lodged papers with the High Court seeking it to be deemed registered after the information minister Tichaona Jokonya and the Media and Information Commission failed to
deal with the matter as directed by the same court.

Earlier this week, it was reported that ANZ lawyers were seeking to have their application reviewed by an independent panel, and indeed their legal team had confirmed the developments.

However, the lawyers appear to have revised their ambitions upwards in court papers seen by New Zimbabwe.com on Thursday, but filed earlier in the week.

In a judgment delivered on February 8, Justice Rita Makarau set aside the MIC decision to deny the publishers of the now defunct Daily News and Daily News on Sunday and ordered that the application be considered again.

Although section 66 (3) of the Access to Information and Protection and Privacy Act (Aippa) stipulates that the application ought to be heard within a month, the time lapsed with no action on the part of the MIC, resulting in the matter spilling back into the High Court.

“It is ordered that applicant is deemed registered as a mass media service in terms of section 66 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Chapter 10:27,” reads part of the outline of an order sought by ANZ.

They also seek the MIC to be ordered to issue ANZ a certificate of registration and to pay the costs of the suit.

The ANZ added that it had resorted to legal action because various
communications to Jokonya had been ignored.

The drawn-out legal wrangle between the ANZ and the MIC has gone from court to court ever since The Daily News and its Sunday edition were first banned by the MIC in September 2003. In February 2004, the battle reached the supreme court, which took more than a year to issue a decision.

The supreme court finally issued its ruling on 14 March 2005, quashing the MIC's ban on the newspapers and forcing it to reconsider the ANZ's request for a licence within 60 days. Although this deadline expired on 15 May, the MIC waited until 16 June to consider the ANZ's request.

After two days of deliberations, on 16 and 17 June, MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso refused to make any statement aside from saying the newspapers would be notified when a decision had been made. He did not explain what that meant. The MIC finally announced its refusal to give the ANZ a licence on 18 July, as a result of which the ANC immediately challenged the decision before the Harare high court.

The MIC's decision was subsequently criticised by a member of the MIC board after he had resigned. The former board member said the chairperson was pressured into refusing the licence by Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
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