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Tribune denied licence
MISA-Zimbabwe
July 13, 2005

The government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) has denied Africa Tribune Newspapers (ATN), publishers of the weekly Tribune newspaper an operating licence to resume publication saying the company had failed to meet the legal requirements of the Commission.

MIC executive chairman Dr Tafataona Mahoso, told the government-controlled national daily The Herald in story published on 13 July 2005 that there were two major reasons for the decision to withhold ATN's operating licence.

Mahoso said ATN whose licence was suspended for a year in June last year, had failed to show that it had enough capital to resume publication. He said the publisher, Kindness Paradza, had also suggested that they planned operating from his home upon re-registration.

"We are waiting for the city council to authorise The Tribune publisher to operate from a residential area and if that is rectified, we will be very happy to look at it (application) again," said Mahoso.

Paradza told MISA-Zimbabwe that they had met all the requirements for re-registration in terms of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

"The issue of whether we have enough capital to resume publication does not arise at all because there are banks that are willing to grant us loans towards the re-capitalisation process."

Paradza denied that they planned to operate from his home. He said he had only informed the MIC that the company's assets were being kept at his home. "Our submissions to the Commission are in black and white," he said.

The ATN's appeal against its suspension is still pending before the Supreme Court.

ATN was closed in June last year after the MIC ruled that it had failed to inform the Commission that The Tribune, initially published on Thursday as the Business Tribune, and on Saturdays as the Weekend Tribune, had merged into The Tribune which was now publishing on Fridays.

The one-year suspension was on allegations of breaching Section 67 of AIPPA which stipulates that the Commission must be informed of any changes in the titles, frequency and ownership of a licensed media house.

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