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Ncube: Zim editors condemn govt action
Mail & Guardian (SA)
January 18, 2007

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=296095&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Zimbabwe's refusal to renew the passport of newspaper owner Trevor Ncube -- publisher of the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent in that country and the Mail & Guardian in South Africa -- is an assault on his freedom of expression and movement, the Zimbabwe National Editors' Forum (Zinef) said on Thursday.

"The latest move by the authorities in Harare to restrict Ncube's capacity to operate as a newspaper publisher represents a form of punishment that must not be allowed to escape international notice," Zinef said in a statement.

"His newspapers in Zimbabwe and South Africa have taken a lead in exposing corruption and misrule."

Zinef said Ncube was seeking a high court order compelling Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede to renew his passport following his application for Zimbabwean citizenship.

Zinef has called on colleagues at home and abroad to "make it clear to the regime that any interference with the freedom of the press in Zimbabwe is unacceptable".

Ncube is arguing that the withdrawal of his citizenship is unlawful as he has never been a citizen of any other country other than Zimbabwe. He contends that his father, who was born in Zambia, is a Zimbabwean citizen.

Immigration officials in Bulawayo seized Ncube's passport on December 8 2005 on his arrival from South Africa. Zinef said no reasons were given for "the unlawful action, other than that Ncube was on a list of citizens whose passports were to be withdrawn".

His passport was released after the Attorney General's office conceded that the seizure was unlawful.

Mudede's refusal to renew Ncube's passport comes almost a year after the high court ruled that the seizure of Ncube's travel document in December 2006 was unlawful.

Last week, the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) warned that Zimbabwe's attempt to strip Ncube of his citizenship threatens the ownership of his newspapers and media freedom.

The action is "a serious inroad in what is left of media freedom in Zimbabwe and Ncube's personal freedom", Sanef chairperson Ferial Haffajee and Sanef media freedom sub-committee convenor Raymond Louw said in a joint statement.

"Ncube states that he has been informed that the government's conduct has been approved 'at the highest level' -- which means that it has the support of President Robert Mugabe, whose abysmal governance of Zimbabwe has been vigorously criticised by Ncube's papers, the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard, the last independent papers in that country.

"This can only mean that Mugabe wants to close down the papers or to change their critical stance by forcing on them a new ownership structure more supportive of him."

Haffajee and Louw said loss of citizenship would mean that Ncube could own only a 40% share in his newspapers, which meant control would pass from him.

They dismissed Zimbabwe's state-appointed Media and Information Commission's assurances that the papers would be allowed to continue publishing, saying the laws against foreign ownership would prevail, so Ncube's papers would be unlikely to continue their critical role.

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