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ZANU PF employee appointed to handle ANZ case
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
November 16, 2007

The Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition wishes to register its dismay at the manner the Minister of Information and Publicity, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu is handling the ANZ, publishers of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday's application to be licensed after its ban by the government in 2003.

Minister Ndlovu's appointment of Charity Sally Moyo to be one of the Media and Information Commission (MIC) board members to deal with the ANZ application is disturbing and shocking.

Information at hand indicates that Charity Sally Moyo is a worker of the ruling ZANU PF party, unless she has left her job in the external department of ZANU PF at its headquarters in Harare recently.

The Coalition's contention is not that Moyo cannot adjudicate on such a matter given that she did a Masters in International Relations with the University of Zimbabwe but her partisan nature is a cause for concern.

While its common knowledge that Chinondidyachii Mararike, the chair of MIC in this application and the Kenyan fugitive Ngugi wa Miri are ZANU PF sympathizers through their public conduct the case of Moyo is worse because she works for the ruling party.

If the ruling party had a history of defending and promoting press freedom, there would be no problem with Moyo presiding over the ANZ case but ZANU PF's allergy to human rights observation and media pluralism is what worries the Coalition.

The Coalition suspects that the government is attempting to mislead the public by putting aside Tafataona Mahoso in the case in order to give MIC a semblance of independence yet the current board could be worse than Mahoso. There is absolutely no need to appoint a party functionary in such a matter. Issues of bias will be raised in the event that license is denied.

It is, therefore, important for the government to appoint a professional and independent panel to deal with the ANZ case. Appointing party employees will not assist to repair the government's image of violating press freedom through closures of private newspapers.

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