Back to Index

ANZ appeal against the Media and Information Commission
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe P/L
October 21, 2003

The Administrative court will this week make a judgement on the appeal by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday against the Media and Information Commission, challenging its refusal to grant them an operating licence. The President of the Administrative Court Michael Majuru on Sunday said he would deliver judgement on either Thursday or Friday, as the court needed time to hear some closing remarks from Mr Johannes Tomana who is representing the MIC and ANZ lawyer Advocate Eric Matinenga.

Advocate Matinenga in the closing submissions on Sunday questioned the legal status of the composition of the MIC, which he said might have been influenced by the Chairman of the MIC Tafataona Mahoso in coming up with the decision not to grant the ANZ a licence. He said by law some of the commissioners are supposed to be nominated by an association of journalists and an association of media houses but none were involved in the process.

"Bias taints everyone who makes up the commission," said advocate Matinenga. Mr Tomana dismissed the allegations saying Mahoso did not influence the rest of the commissioners in making the decision not to grant the ANZ an operating licence.

Earlier on Friday President Majuru said the ANZ case was not a case where the commission could have come up with its own reasons to reject the ANZ application other than those stipulated by the law.

"The wording of the Act is very clear, it tells you when you can refuse a licence," he said. Alluding to section 69 of The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIIPA), Justice Majuru said under the section the MIC might refuse to register a mass media house if it fails to comply with any provisions of the law or provides misleading or false information, non-payment of registration fees or if the application is filed by an unqualified person.

President Majuru also said under section 71(6) of the Act the commission had power to remind the paper that it was operating illegally. The commission could issue an order to the paper not to continue publishing or impose daily penalties for the period it defied the law as stipulated under section 79(1).

Mahoso said the commission could not penalise the paper as it had taken its case to the Supreme Court.
The ANZ, which was closed after the Supreme Court granted that it was operating illegally, is seeking a court order to overturn the decision of the MIC for it to resume operations as a media service provider.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP