US embassy cable - 04HARARE1756

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 001756 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR BNEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVELLE, D. TEITELBAUM 
PARIS FOR C. NEARY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2009 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KPAO, ZI, Media and Communications 
SUBJECT: GOZ TO OPEN MEDIA SPACE? 
 
REF: A. HARARE 1722 
     B. HARARE 988 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Classified by Ambassador Dell under reason 1.4 d 
 
1. (C)  On October 18, CEO Sam Nkomo of The Daily News (TDN), 
the independent daily that was closed by the GOZ in September 
2003 and has been unsuccessful in its efforts to reopen (ref 
B), met with the Charge to discuss the status of TDN's 
consolidated court appeal.  Although Nkomo did not identify 
his sources, he said he was told that the Supreme Court 
decision on the consolidated appeal was being prepared and 
would soon be released.  Nkomo said he expected the decision 
to be in favor of TDN and that senior personnel were 
preparing for the paper to resume publishing.  Nkomo said he 
believed that the decision would be favorable because of the 
recent trend of court decisions being made independent of the 
Executive, and because the GOZ was trying to cultivate a 
favorable image internationally. 
 
2. (C)  Nkomo expressed concern, however, that if the 
decision were favorable, the GOZ would find another way to 
shut the paper down.  The Daily News has been operating an 
online version but has not made any income at all since the 
paper ceased publishing a print version.  Nkomo said he 
feared that the GOZ could declare the paper insolvent and 
shut it down as a result. 
 
COMMENT 
----------------- 
 
3. (C)  The potential reopening of The Daily News would be a 
significant occurrence in the lead up to the March 
Parliamentary elections.  Since the GOZ closed TDN, the 
opposition MDC has had severely limited access to the media. 
Last month Minister for Justice, Parliamentary, and Legal 
Affairs Patrick Chinamasa publicly announced that the GOZ was 
drafting guidelines for access to government media by 
political parties in compliance with SADC election 
principles.  During the last two weeks, however, Chinamasa 
and Information Minister Jonathan Moyo have publicly 
suggested that guidelines would only apply to "loyal" parties 
who were contesting elections, implicitly excluding the 
opposition MDC as long as it continued its conditional 
suspension of participation. 
 
4. (C)  Nkomo's confidence in a favorable court decision 
appears overly optimistic.  Even assuming that the High 
Court's recent acquittal of MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai 
reflects increasing judicial independence (which is 
questionable, ref A), the Supreme Court, by contrast, has 
been more overtly oriented towards the GOZ.  Moreover, even 
if Nkomo is correct and the Supreme Court upholds the 
numerous lower court judgments in TDN's favor, the newspaper 
still could be shut down under the pretext of violations of 
ordinary financial laws, or the Media and Information 
Commission could block publishing of the paper under its 
authority, independent of the Court's decision.  There is no 
credible evidence the GOZ is willing to allow independent 
press to operate in advance of the March 2005 elections, and, 
thus, it seems unlikely that The Daily News would be allowed 
to publish before then.  It is more likely that the GOZ will 
satisfy its ostensible commitment to SADC election principles 
by opening the official media marginally and belatedly to the 
opposition--and even then only if the MDC agrees to 
participate in the elections.  An upcoming test of the GOZ's 
posture towards freedom of press will be its decisions in 
December on license renewals for the two independent weekly 
newspapers, the Independent and the Standard.  Note:  Both of 
the weeklies are owned by Zimbabwean media mogul, Trevor 
Ncube, who resides in South Africa and also owns the Mail and 
Guardian there.  END COMMENT. 
DELL