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Alert

Secret service reverses licensing body's decision to register ANZ

(MISA/IFEX) - Zimbabwe's secret service allegedly reversed a decision by the government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) to register Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ).

The weekly "Financial Gazette" reported in its December 1-7 2005 edition that impeccable sources had told the paper that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) had vetoed ANZ's registration.

According to papers filed in the High Court, Jonathan Maphenduka, a former MIC board member, said the media regulatory body had agreed, on June 16, 2005, to register ANZ, publishers of "Daily News" and "Daily News on Sunday"

The MIC reportedly agreed that there was no legal basis to deny ANZ a license.

The decision was supposed to have been communicated to the public immediately, but MIC chairman Dr Tafataona Mahoso stalled, presumably "to consult higher authorities."

The June 16 decision was taken simultaneously with the decision to deny another publisher, The African Tribune Newspapers (ATN), a license - a decision that Mahoso communicated to the applicants directly. Mahoso, however, chose to wait for more than a month before proceeding with the ANZ case.

"Notwithstanding the attitude of the commission to the application of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, the executive chairperson, Dr Mahoso, appeared to me to be stalling on the matter and he demanded additional information regarding the shareholders of the applicant.

"Dr Mahoso took the view that the structures of the applicant were confusing and it was necessary to clear this confusion," said Maphenduka in an affidavit filed in the High Court.

The ANZ is challenging the MIC's decision to deny it a license to publish its titles.

Maphenduka, a veteran journalist, resigned from the MIC in August 2005 to protest what he described as the Commission's ill-advised decision to close down newspapers.

Maphenduka states in his affidavit that, contrary to normal practice, minutes of the June 16 meeting had not been made available to him nor were they adopted at a subsequent meeting.

In his affidavit, which is silent on the issue of the June 16 meeting, Mahoso says all the commissioners, including Maphenduka, agreed not to register the ANZ.