Independent media's battle continues

A Southern African media watchdog has renewed calls for self-regulation of the Zimbabwean press, after a government-appointed commission denied a newspaper permission to reopen. The Media and Information Commission (MIC) declined granting a licence to resume publication to Africa Tribune Newspapers (ATN), publishers of the weekly The Tribune newspaper, saying the company had failed to show that it had enough capital, and because it intended operating from a residence. However, the ATN publisher, Kindness Paradza, told the Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe that they had met all the requirements for re-registration in terms of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). "The issue of whether we have enough capital to resume publication does not arise at all, because there are banks that are willing to grant us loans towards the re-capitalisation process," he commented. Paradza denied he planned to operate from his home. The MIC was set up under Zimbabwe's controversial AIPPA law to license newspapers and journalists. In a high profile decision in 2004 it denied a licence to Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), which owns two anti-government papers: the Daily News, once the country's largest selling newspaper, and the Daily News on Sunday. MISA's Nyasha Nyakunu said it had been lobbying the government for an independent commission, which would be run by members of the media to regulate the information industry. The ATN's appeal against its suspension is still pending a hearing in the Supreme Court. ATN was closed in June 2004 after the MIC ruled that it had failed to inform the Commission that The Tribune - initially published on Thursdays as The Business Tribune, and on Saturdays as The Weekend Tribune - had merged into The Tribune, which had usually gone on sale on Fridays. The one-year suspension was based on allegations of breaching AIPPA, which stipulates that the commission must be informed of any changes in the titles, frequency and ownership of a licensed media house. Besides the official daily The Herald, and pro-government The Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe's press stable includes the privately-owned weeklies The Financial Gazette, The Independent and The Standard.