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Zim media laws claim another independent newspaper
Mail & Guardian (SA)
February 27, 2005

Harare - An recently established independent paper in Zimbabwe, the Weekly Times, has been shut down for allegedly violating the country's tough media laws, its owner, Godfrey Ncube, said on Saturday. The paper, the fourth to be closed in the Southern African country since the enactment of the media laws in 2002, was shut down after publishing just eight editions, and just a month ahead of crunch national elections. "We got a letter yesterday [Friday] from the Media and Information Commission [MIC] saying our licence has been cancelled for one year," Ncube said in a telephone interview from the second-largest city of Bulawayo. The Bulawayo-based weekly first hit the newsstands on January 2 this year. The MIC chairperson, Tafataona Mahoso, in comments published by the state-run Herald, said the paper had been closed for misrepresentation of and failure to disclose certain facts it pledged when the registration licence was issued in September last year. Mahoso said the publisher had promised to focus his editorial content on "developmental journalism" and social issues. "The commission regrets to report that all this was a hoax," said Mahoso, alleging that the paper had turned out to be preoccupied with sensational and partisan political advocacy. "It therefore announces, unfortunately, the cancellation for one year of the publishing licence for Mthwakazi Publishing House, publishers of the Weekly Times," he said. "Media services are required to stick to the types of publications they register because it is illegal for them to pick up someone else's unregistered objects and projects for whatever reward," Mahoso said.

Ncube, who plans to challenge the closure in court, said he believes the paper was closed down for political reasons. "There is no basis for closing us down. We feel it's a political move; it's got nothing to do with the law," said Ncube, alleging he had been accused of close ties to opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Welshman Ncube and an outspoken critic of Mugabe, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube. He said his paper has also been falsely accused of being linked to an anti-government website bearing a similar name to his publishing house. Under Zimbabwe's media laws, drafted by the former Information minister Jonathan Moyo, whom Mugabe sacked a week ago, three other newspapers were closed down for various offences. The Daily News and its sister paper, The Daily News on Sunday, were forcibly closed in September 2003, while the weekly Tribune was shut down in June last year. Scores of journalists have been arrested under the same laws.

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