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ANZ directors acquitted
MISA-Zimbabwe
September 21, 2004

Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe [ANZ] and its four directors who were being jointly charged with contempt of court and publishing The Daily News without the requisite licence, were yesterday acquitted of the charges.

Harare regional magistrate Lillian Kudya acquitted the four directors, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, Rachel Kupara, Michael Mattinson, and Brian Mutsau, and the company, at the end of the State’s case after ruling that the State had failed to prove its case against the accused.

The accused were being charged with contempt of court and breaching Section 72 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

Subsection (1) provides that no person shall carry on or operate a mass media service without a valid registration certificate, licence or permit issued in terms of this Act or any other law.

Section 72 stipulates that a person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding $300 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

In addition to any fine imposed in terms of subsection (2), and without derogation from any of its powers granted under any enactment, a court convicting a person of contravening subsection (1) may declare forfeited to the State any product, equipment or apparatus used for the purpose of or in connection with the offence.

The contempt of court charges emanated from judgments by the Supreme Court, the Administrative Court and the High Court respectively involving ANZ.

The State again failed to state which judgment the accused were allegedly in contempt of to substantiate the alternative charge.

In her judgment, magistrate Kudya said: "This is a case which had too many inconsistencies. The State did not lead any evidence on the main counts or alternative charge that this court could reasonably convict on."

The Administrative Court ruled on 23 October 2003 that the Media and Information Commission [MIC] was improperly constituted and ordered the relevant authority to properly constitute the body which should in turn issue ANZ with a registration certificate on or before 30 November 2003, failure of which the ANZ would be deemed registered.

ANZ proceeded to publish an issue of The Daily News the following day on 24 October 2003 following the Administrative Court’s ruling.

Commenting on Monday’s ruling by the regional court, ANZ chief executive officer, Sam Sipepa Nkomo, said there is now no legal basis to stop them from publishing.

He said they had been vindicated by the courts as there is no properly constituted MIC to register them despite the State having appealed against the Administrative Court decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is still to deliver judgment in the matter.

The Administrative Court also ruled that the noting of an appeal against its decision by the State would not suspend the operation of its decision.

Nkomo, however, said there was a technical hitch which preventing the ANZ from resuming publishing arising from the MIC’s refusal to accredit its journalists which was still to be decided in the Supreme Court.

The Daily News and its sister publication, The Daily News on Sunday, stopped publishing on 12 September 2003 after the Supreme Court ruled that it was operating illegally as it was not registered with the MIC in terms of the law.

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