New MIC board to deal with Daily News application

New MIC board to deal with Daily News application

• High Court refers Daily NBews to Information Minister

• Daily News appeals to court for licence

• Nkomo case sucks in Chiyangwa, Mawere

• Daily News lawyers seek registration date

• Mahoso abused MIC funds, hearing told

• 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

ZIMBABWE named a new board on Tuesday to consider an application to reopen the country's largest private newspaper, four years after it was banned.

The government said it was replacing a commission which had rejected a licence application for Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe's (ANZ) Daily News and Daily News on Sunday, which have been critical of President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled in 2003 the company was publishing its two titles outside the law because it refused to register them under tough media laws introduced following Mugabe's controversial re-election.

In May this year a High Court judge ordered the Media and Information Commission (MIC) to consider a fresh application for the newspaper, and on Tuesday the government said it had named a new board to handle the application.

"In my consultations, I paid particular attention to the disablement of the regulatory authority, MIC, by earlier court rulings," Information and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said.

"I now direct (that) this reconstituted MIC board deals with the aforesaid application of the ANZ, paying particular attention to the law and parameters set by all court rulings on the matter."

However previous commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso -- whom the newspaper accused of bias -- retained his position.

The new members of the MIC board are Chinondidyachii Mararike, Charity Sally Moyo, Edward Dube, Tendai Joseph Chari, Ngugi Wa Mirii and Pascal Mukondiwa who was retained.

There was no place on the new board for Dr Rino Zhuwarara, Alphios Makoni, Sephat Mlambo and Jonathan Maphenduka who quit in protest at the handling of the Daily News case.

Critics say Mugabe's government has stifled democracy through its crackdown on private media, while the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has demanded the repeal of stiff media laws before next year's election.

The Daily News -- which began publishing in 1999 -- was critical of Mugabe's government and had seen its readership rising sharply as the country's economic and political crisis deepened.

Mugabe's government, which denies mismanaging the economy, frequently accused the newspaper of being an opposition mouthpiece. - Reuters
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