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ANZ appeal case postponed
MISA-Zimbabwe
September 21, 2005

The Administrative Court has postponed to an unknown date the hearing of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) appeal in which it is challenging the Media and Information Commission’s (MIC) refusal to grant them an operating licence.

The matter had initially been set for 21 and 22 September 2005 only to be postponed after the MIC objected to the inclusion of two court assessors arguing that their presence would not allow for a fair hearing.

The MIC argued that the two assessors, Tendai Chari and Augustine Timbe, had in September 2003 presided in a previous case in which then Administrative Court Judge, Justice Michael Majuru ruled in ANZ’s favour.

ANZ are the publishers of the banned Daily News and Daily News on Sunday which ceased publication in September 2003.

This followed a Supreme Court judgment which ruled that ANZ was operating illegally as it was not registered with the MIC in terms of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

The media house had refused to be registered with the Commission pending the outcome of its constitutional challenges against certain sections of AIPPA.

The matter was subsequently heard by the Supreme Court which in March this year referred the issue of ANZ’s application to be duly registered back to the MIC for consideration as a fresh matter.

The MIC, however, still refused to license ANZ on the basis of alleged contraventions of sections of AIPPA which included publishing The Daily News and Daily News on Sunday without a licence.

The Commission ruled that ANZ’s contravention of Section 66 which deals with the registration of mass media service providers, among others, was "inexcusable".

ANZ argues that the MIC erred in arriving at its decision on the basis of alleged contraventions of the law in the absence of a successful criminal prosecution and conviction against the publishing company.

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