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ANZ denied licence
MISA-Zimbabwe
July 19, 2005

The Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) was on 18 July 2005 denied a licence to resume publication of the banned Daily News and Daily News on Sunday after the government controlled regulatory body ruled that it had breached sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

The Media and Information Commission (MIC) ruled that ANZ had committed an “inexcusable” offence by publishing The Daily News without a licence in 2003.

The Daily News stopped publication in September 2003 after the Supreme Court ruled that it was operating illegally as it was not registered with the MIC as required under AIPPA.

The ANZ had not registered with the MIC pending the outcome of its constitutional challenges against certain sections of AIPPA which culminated in the Supreme Court judgment of September 2003 and its ultimate closure.

The judgment triggered a series of appeals and counter-appeals between ANZ and the MIC.

The appeals and counter-appeals were eventually heard as one consolidated case by the Supreme Court which in March 2005 referred the matter back to the MIC for a determination on the ANZ’s application to be re-registered.

The Commission, however, ruled that the ANZ had contravened Sections 66, 72, 76 and 79 (6) of the Act.

Sections 66, 72, 76, and 79  (6) deal with the registration of mass media service providers, publishing without a registration certificate, deposition of copies of the newspaper in question with the MIC and the accreditation of journalists, respectively.

The MIC denied ANZ an operating licence saying it had not registered with the Commission, had published without a registration certificate, failed to deposit copies of the newspaper with the regulatory body and that its journalists had operated without being accredited in terms of the law.

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