US embassy cable - 03HARARE1933

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 001933 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF FOR A/S KANSTEINER AND PDAS SNYDER; AF/S FOR 
DELISI AND RAYNOR; AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2013 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI, Media and Communications 
SUBJECT: GOZ KEEPS THE BOOT ON THE DAILY NEWS 
 
REF: REF: HARARE 1911 
 
Classified By: JPolacheck for reaons 1.5 b/d 
 
 1.  (C)  Over the weekend of Sept 19th, the GOZ solidified 
its position in its battle (ref) to keep the only independent 
daily newspaper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News (TDN), closed. 
The parent company of TDN, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe 
(ANZ), filed an application with the Media and Information 
Commission (MIC) to register as a mass media organization as 
required by the oppressive Access to Information and Privacy 
Protection Act (AIPPA).  The High Court ruled that while the 
application was pending, ANZ had the right to resume 
publishing TDN under Sec. 8 of AIPPA.  For two days, Sept 
18-19, the police did not allow publication in defiance of 
the ruling. 
 
2.  (C)  In the dead of the night of Friday, Sept 19, a 
letter was delivered to the home of Sam Nkomo, CEO of ANZ 
announcing the MIC's decision.  The letter was addressed to 
Gugulethu Moyo, ANZ,s legal counsel, at the address of the 
occupied TDN offices.  ANZ only learned about the MIC 
decision in the Sept 20th edition of the 
government-controlled "The Herald," senior members of ANZ had 
been sleeping in safe houses for days and thus the letter was 
not received on Sept 19.  The MIC decision listed several 
reasons for rejecting the ANZ application, none of which were 
contained in AIPPA.  ANZ held a press conference on Sept 20 
in an attempt to get their side of the story out.  The 
remnants of the international and independent press corps did 
attend.  The only way to appeal an MIC decision is to go to 
the Administrative Court which can only accept or reject an 
MIC,s decision.  If the Court rejects an MIC decision, AIPPA 
stipulates that the MIC reconsiders the matter.  According to 
the law, this Kafkaesque circle repeats ad infinitum. 
Nevertheless, according to Moyo, ANZ will be pursuing this 
legal avenue among many others. 
 
3.  (C)  The other options being pursued by the ANZ to get 
TDN back on the streets include selling their assets to one 
of the independent weeklies so that the weekly could become a 
daily or externalizing production and importing TDN as a 
weekly.  The online division is already in the process of 
being sold to a South African concern so that at least the 
website can resume publishing.  ANZ and the Media Institute 
of Southern Africa/Zimbabwe (MISA/Z) are challenging the 
appointment of the MIC.  According to the suit, the MIC 
members were not properly appointed even under the lax rules 
of AIPPA. 
 
4.  (C)  According to ANZ officials, ever since the High 
Court ruled that ANZ had the right to publish under Sec. 8 of 
AIPPA, the homes of senior members of ANZ,  including Moyo, 
the editors, the production managers and the head of the 
worker's committee, were visited by non-uniformed men who 
refuse to identify themselves or their reasons for seeking 
the ANZ officials.  ANZ officials were already in safe-houses 
and thus were unable to talk with these men to discern who 
they are or what their mission was.  Moyo has suggested that 
this is a intimidation tactic. 
 
5. (C)  COMMENT  For the moment, GOZ has succeeded in it 
primary objective: keeping TDN off the streets.  There is now 
no counter-weight to the daily propaganda of "The Herald" and 
"The Chronicle" (the government-controlled daily in Bulawayo) 
coming from Minister Jonathan Moyo,s office.  The speedy, 
four-day, decision by the MIC (published statements from the 
MIC Chairman originally implied that the decision would be 
slow in coming) was clearly in response to the High Court 
ruling allowing ANZ to publish.  Though ANZ will continue to 
struggle, for the moment the GOZ seems to have won this 
battle.  Post feels the GOZ is continuing to push the 
boundaries of what the international community will accept, 
possibly testing to see if South Africa will continue to 
advocate for Zimbabwe's return to the Commonwealth even as 
this crack-down continues.  Post requests that Washington 
continue to issue public statements condemning the behavior 
of the GOZ, track this issue with international media 
watchdog groups, and that in meetings with representatives of 
Zimbabwe's neighbors, especially South Africa, we raise this 
issue. 
SULLIVAN