Mahoso's term as MIC chief expires

Mahoso's term as MIC chief expires

• Jokonya, Mahoso file Daily News challenge

• Maphenduka: MIC an unnecessary drain

• Daily News seeks 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 Lebo Nkatazo

THE tenure of Zimbabwe's government-appointed media regulation body -- the Media and Information Commission (MIC) -- runs out on Wednesday.

For four years Tafataona Mahoso, the MIC chairman who is also a journalism lecturer and newspaper columnist has stood accused of suppressing media freedoms by banning newspapers critical of President Robert Mugabe's regime.

Four newspapers have been banned since the MIC was established by an Act of Parliament -- the much-criticised Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which gives the body power to register and de-register newspapers and journalists.

The commission's first three terms stipulated under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act ended in June 2005.

Mahoso's team of commissioners were handed two more six-month terms which expire on Wednesday.

A commissioner told New Zimbabwe.com Tuesday: “Our letters of appointment said the six-moth term was with effect from December 14 and expires on June 14. We don't know what will happen but there is talk that government will deal with the issue at the end of June."

The MIC has closed four critical newspapers since its establishment.

A leading independent newspaper, The Daily News, was taken off the streets together with its sister paper, The Daily News on Sunday. The commission was also responsible for shutting down the Tribune and Weekly Times newspapers for reasons ranging from refusing to register to failing to notify the MIC of changes to ownership.

The High Court and the Supreme Court have in separate judgments endorsed arguments by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the Daily News, that the MIC is biased.

The judgments have since gone to bar the MIC, as presently constituted, from hearing the ANZ case.

Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya and Mahoso recently petitioned the High Court to dismiss with costs a Daily News application to be deemed registered.

Jokonya and Mahoso are arguing that the court does not have jurisdiction over the matter. The MIC and the Information Minister, they say, are the only two authorities vested with powers to deal with the registration of newspapers.

Jokonya said after the High Court ruled that the MIC must recuse itself from hearing the Daily News' application for registration, he considered setting a special board but was advised the Attorney General’s office that he did not have powers to do so.
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