US embassy cable - 03HARARE1997

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 001997 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF FOR A/S KANSTEINER AND PDAS SNYDER; AF/S FOR 
DELISI AND RAYNOR; AF/PDPA FOR RSMITH, DALTON, MITCHELL AND 
SIMS 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2013 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI, KPOL 
SUBJECT: THE DAILY NEWS STRUGGLES TO RETURN TO THE STREETS 
AS GOZ PRESSURE CONTINUES 
 
REF: REF: HARARE 1943 
 
Classified By: JPOLACHECK FOR REASONS 1.5 b/d 
 
Tyranny Continues 
----------------- 
 
1.  (SBU)  Since Sept 24 (reftel) the only independent daily 
newspaper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News (TDN), has not 
succeeded in getting an edition on the streets.  TDN,s 
parent company, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), was 
optimistic several times about returning to press only to see 
the government crack-down intensify.  All the directors of 
ANZ residing in Zimbabwe have now been charged with felonies 
for running an illegal mass media operation under the 
Orwellian Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act 
(AIPPA) and now the GOZ is going after individual journalists 
for reporting without licenses.  As of Sept 24, 16 of ANZ,s 
journalists have been charged, and the GOZ has expressed to 
ANZ that it intends to charge dozens more.  Ironically, in 
December 2002, most if not all of these journalists did apply 
to the Media and Information Commission (MIC, a body 
appointed by and responsible to Minister of Information J. 
Moyo), the fees being paid by ANZ, and none of the 
applications were acted upon by the MIC.  Several ANZ court 
challenges are underway, but, as is typical, now that the GOZ 
has the situation as they want it, the status quo is 
perpetuated by glacially slow courts.  The police continue to 
hold on to ANZ,s property, and the judge hearing ANZ,s 
urgent application has twice reserved judgment.  It is not 
clear that the charges filed against the individual 
journalists are anything more than a form of harassment and 
intimidation. 
 
Survival of the Fittest 
----------------------- 
 
2.  (C) ANZ is working hard to get some sort of counterweight 
to the daily propaganda of GOZ,s two daily newspapers.  The 
front page of the Sept 26 the South African &Mail and 
Guardian8 (owned by ANZ,s parent company) featured TDN 
masthead and the headline &We publish the voices Mugabe 
silenced8.  Inside were several articles by TDN editors. 
The edition sold out its Zimbabwean print run and an 
additional printing sold out on Sept 29.  ANZ is in the 
process of putting together an external weekly edition of TDN 
as well as placing articles in the three independent weeklies 
that are still printing.  Discussions with civil society 
groups are ongoing to use the internet as an alternative 
distribution channel, so that TDN would publish a daily 
print-ready internet edition and the hundreds of civil 
society groups would print several hundred copies on office 
printers for mass dispersion.  ANZ is pursuing legal 
challenges on factual and constitutional grounds to the MIC, 
AIPPA and the police,s actions.  ANZ CEO Sam Nkomo told the 
Ambassador on October 1 that ANZ owner Strive Misiywa intends 
to continue paying all ANZ salaries to prevent the GOZ from 
scattering the paper,s human resource base, especially 
important in light of a new private but pro-government paper 
starting up in December. 
 
The Battle Lost, the War Begins? 
-------------------------------- 
 
3. (C) COMMENT TDN probably will not be back on the streets 
in the foreseeable future.  The sentiment within ANZ and 
post,s contacts within the government-controlled press is 
that Min. Moyo has no intention of allowing TDN to resume 
publication.  This heavy-handed disregard for the rule of 
law, targeted at one of the most popular institutions in 
Zimbabwe (independent estimates gave TDN 1 million readers 
daily), appears to have galvanized public attention.  It is 
one more factor taxing the patience of the ever-placid 
Zimbabweans though there are no immediate signs that mass 
protest is imminent.  The GOZ appears to be playing a waiting 
game in which they expect Zimbabweans and the international 
community to eventually accept this new status quo and forget 
there ever was an independent daily newspaper.  It is 
important that this not occur, and that we maintain the focus 
on this outrage and the pressure on the GOZ. 
SULLIVAN