http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=286252&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Publishers of a popular Zimbabwean daily shut down by state authorities three years ago, on Monday asked a court to grant them the right to publish until the long-running dispute was resolved.

"You have before your ladyship a case where the applicant [Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe] has been thrown from pillar to post since 2003," ANZ's attorney Eric Matinenga told the High Court in Harare.

"This case must be brought to finality. This is the time to order that the applicant be allowed to publish pending the outcome of the consideration of its application for registration."

ANZ is the publisher of the Daily News, a virulent critic of President Robert Mugabe's government and its sister paper, the Daily News on Sunday, which were closed down in September 2003 for breaching Zimbabwe's tough media laws and operating without a licence.

A state-run media commission has twice refused to grant it a licence despite a Supreme Court ruling in March last year that threw out the ban on the newspaper.

Matinenga said the long-running court battle between ANZ and the government deprived Zimbabweans of the right to freedom of information.

High court judge Justice Anne-Marie Gowora reserved judgement, saying she needed time to come to a decision.

Once the country's best-selling daily, the Daily News has been reduced to a handful of former managers and journalists occupying a small office in central Harare.

In its heyday, the paper had a circulation of 150 000 and offered an alternative voice to the state media.

President Mugabe signed a repressive media law in 2002, barring foreign correspondents in Zimbabwe and forcing all local journalists to seek accreditation to work. - Sapa-AFP

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