| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Associated Newspapers Group |
| Editor | John Gambanga |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Harare |
| Official website | www.dailynews.co.zw |
The Daily News was a Zimbabwean independent newspaper published in Harare. Its presses were bombed and it was banned in 2003.[1]
Contents |
The Daily News was first launched on July 31, 1999, and controversially banned in defiance of a court ruling in 2003. Its founder, Geoffrey Nyarota, was a journalist notorious for his criticism of Robert Mugabe. The Daily News was the last independently run newspaper in Zimbabwe, and had a circulation of over 100,000.[2]
Many perceived the Daily News to be connected to the Movement for Democratic Change party, because of its constant criticism of Zanu-PF and the government, although in reality, MDC was formed afterwards. It was believed by supporters to have been deliberately targeted by the government for its negative depiction of the Mugabe administration. The paper's premises were bombed twice, allegedly by the Zanu-PF militia, although no-one has yet been charged for the incidents.[1]
On April 22, 2000 a homemade bomb was thrown at the newspaper's front door from a passing car. On January 28, 2001 a series of bombs exploded in the offices of Daily News, blowing up the printing press. A investigation of the incident was without results. Independent journalists suspected the government or its supporters for the attack.[2]
The newspaper itself became the object of criticism from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), police and the government on frequent occasions.[1] The ZNLWVA leader Chenjerai Hunzvi threatened the newspaper for talking about them in a repeatedly negative way: "I do not want to start a war with the newspaper, but this is my last warning."[2]
On June 9, 2000, a group of war veterans in the town of Kwekwe seized copies of the Daily News and burned them. War veterans have also severely beaten Chengetai Zvauya, a Daily News reporter, after threatening to do so.[2][3]
On November 6, 2001, the state-owned Herald newspaper published an article announcing that the Zimbabwe Investment Center (ZIC), had canceled the investment license of the ANZ, the parent company of the Daily News, for breaking investment laws by inviting new share-holders into the company. The ANZ denies the charges, claiming that there was no hard evidence against them, and that the reports are simply due to a clerical mistake made in 1997 by PricewaterhouseCoopers when registering the company.[2] Muchadeyi Masunda, chief executive of ANZ claimed that the charges were "unfathomable".
The newspaper having been banned in September 2003, the Supreme Court dropped the accusations under the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to prove the newspaper was being published illegally and ordered that the newspaper be allowed to continue publishing.[4] However, the government later ignored this ruling by Justice Selo Nare, with Information minister Jonathan Moyo saying that it carried no weight, as the judge had no power to defy the strict Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) media laws set by the government the previous years. The Media and Information Commission (MIC) claimed that the newspaper did not have a license to publish under the new laws.[5] "A cardinal principle of the rule of law is that while the courts have a duty to interpret the law, the executive [government] has a duty to implement the law and this is precisely what the government is going to do in this case," Moyo said.[6]
In May 2010 a governmental media commission granted the right to publish a daily newspaper to four publications, among them the Daily News.[7]