Police vacate Daily News offices

Zimbabwe's largest selling newspaper, The Daily News, could be back on the streets on Thursday, after winning a High Court order compelling the police to vacate its premises and stop interfering with its publishing operations. The police reportedly complied and left the pro-opposition newspaper's offices on Wednesday afternoon. In papers filed with the High Court, the police argued they had occupied the offices and printing press of the privately owned daily in order to comply with a directive by the regulatory Media and Information Commission (MIC), which had refused to issue a publishing license to the paper. But Justice Tendai Uchena ruled that, based on presentations by the newspaper's legal representatives, he saw no reason why he should not grant an order compelling the police to vacate its premises. The state's legal representative, Yvonne Dondo of the Attorney-General's Office, conceded that the last four High Court and Administrative Court victories won by the newspaper were binding, and the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of The Daily News and its sister newspaper, The Daily News On Sunday, should resume publication. "I concede that the order of the Administrative Court remains operational," she said. The chief executive officer of the ANZ, Sam Sipepa Nkomo, said the police left the newspaper's offices on Wednesday afternoon after being served with the High Court order, but could not be certain that they would not return as they had done in the past. "As far as we are concerned, The Daily News should be back on the streets tomorrow. We don't know what might happen between now and tomorrow, but the newspaper should be back on the streets tomorrow," said Nkomo. The Daily News was closed by the Zimbabwean government on 12 September last year, after the Supreme Court ruled that it could not make a constitutional challenge to the country's new media laws, as it was not registered with the MIC.