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Govt determained to prolong closure of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2006-15
Monday April 10th 2006 - Sunday April 16th 2006

THIS week the Zimbabwe Independent (13/4) exposed the authorities’ determination to prolong the closure of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) through legal technicalities thereby delaying the re-launching of the banned Daily News.

It reported that despite the High Court’s February 8 judgment, which found the Media and Information Commission (MIC) to be biased and compelled the authorities to set up a reconstituted body to consider ANZ’s case, government had no intentions of complying.

Citing government papers opposing the publisher’s application to be deemed registered after the lapse of the court’s 30-day deadline under which the matter was supposed to be dealt with, the paper reported Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya arguing that the "court did not have powers to grant the application", adding that he was also "unable to appoint another committee" as AIPPA "did not provide for that".

As such, he further argued, the appointment of another body would be "ultra vires the Act" and "illegal".

He then suggested that AIPPA be amended first to provide him with "powers to appoint an ad hoc commission whenever a situation as in the instant case arises".

In apparent defiance of the court’s ruling Jokonya added that he "still retain(s) confidence" in the commission and had no "wish to remove it" as it had not done anything which he considered "to be in breach of the law" regarding the ANZ’s case.

But while the authorities mire the ANZ’s fate in such bureaucracy, Zimbabweans remain starved of alternative daily sources of information.

In another related matter, ZTV (19/4, 8pm) reported Jokonya’s deputy Bright Matonga defending AIPPA saying it was a "fine piece of legislation against which the only complaint the journalists have is that it is cumbersome".

He claimed that his ministry had gone "through that law and…didn’t see anything wrong with (it)", an observation he alleged was also confirmed by journalists and publishers whose only concern was that application of the law was "boring" as they had to complete various application forms, among other issues.

Without verifying his claims, the station allowed him to subordinate the role of the media to ‘national interests’ saying journalists should "put the interests of the nation first in their line of duty" as patriotism was the "hallmark of good journalism".

He then chastised "some journalists" who were "peddling lies or half truths ostensibly to get themselves arrested and become heroes in the eyes of the West".

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