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MIC dismisses media claims
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
January 03, 2007

THE Media and Information Commission has dismissed Press reports claiming that it intended to close The Standard and Zimbabwe Independent newspapers as a result of a citizenship wrangle between their publisher, Trevor Ncube and the Registrar-General.

The Registrar-General's Office says Ncube is a Zambian citizen hence he cannot be a Zimbabwean citizen at the same time, in terms of the Citizenship Act.

Ncube failed to regularise his citizenship in 2001 when the amended Citizenship Act — which bars dual citizenship — came into force. Ncube's father is Zambian while his mother is Zimbabwean. He did not regularise his citizenship until he was compelled to renew his Zimbabwean passport. But now he is deemed to have lost his Zimbabwean citizenship through application of the amended Act. He lodged an appeal but abandoned it and is now challenging the law itself. Reports in newspapers and the websites claimed that the MIC intended to shut down the papers following the lapse of Ncube's citizenship.

The reports said the two newspapers would be closed in terms of Section 65 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. "The MIC is outraged by a campaign of disinformation, originating from Ncube's own papers but circulated mainly through Internet sites, in which the writers suggest that the commission is somehow behind the case of Registrar-General Cde Tobaiwa Mudede versus newspaper publisher Mr Trevor Vusimusi Ncube.

"First of all, the MIC learned of Mr Ncube's difficulties from the Press and has never in any way been party to this case," the commission said in a statement yesterday. The commission said the speculative reports represented "gross misreadings of the Act". The MIC said the cited section of AIPPA allowed newspapers already publishing at December 31 2002 to maintain their ownership and their shareholders as they were on that date, "even where those shareholders might be foreigners". "The same Section 65 would allow Mr Ncube to maintain his ownership of the two newspapers even if he lost his citizenship, as long as Mr Ncube was regarded as permanently resident in Zimbabwe in terms of the Act. "So we wonder why the publisher would choose to instigate such a campaign of vilification against the MIC and the nation when he knows that AIPPA, in fact, protects his papers," said the commission.

The MIC added that there would be no reason to close Mr Ncube's papers as long as the papers maintained the status quo prevailing at December 31 2002.

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