US embassy cable - 05HARARE988

C O N F I D E N T I A L  HARARE 000988 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
AF FOR DAS T. WOODS 
AF/S FOR B. NEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2010 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, ZI, Media and Communications 
SUBJECT: MORE BLOWS FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA 
 
REF: A. HARARE 663 
 
     B. 2004 HARARE 988 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Eric Schultz under Section 1.4 
b/d 
 
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Summary 
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1. (C) In a blow to media freedom, the Media and Information 
Commission (MIC) has again denied operating licenses to the 
semi-independent weekly Tribune newspaper and to the 
independent Daily News and Daily News on Sunday.  The two 
decisions were announced July 13 and 19 respectively.  The 
publishers of the Daily News plan to appeal the decision. 
The plans of the publisher of the Tribune are not yet known. 
End summary. 
 
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Tribune Refused Operating License 
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2. (SBU) On July 13, the MIC, charged with registering and 
regulating media outlets and journalists, announced its 
decision to refuse the semi-independent weekly Tribune 
newspaper an operating license.  The Tribune had ceased 
operations in June 2004 when the MIC suspended it for failing 
to notify the MIC of a change in ownership of the company 
that published the Tribune (ref B).  According to a July 13 
government-controlled Herald newspaper story, MIC chairman 
Tafataona Mahoso said the MIC had turned down the Tribune 
because it did not have sufficient capital to resume 
publication and because Tribune publisher Kindness Paradza, 
who was suspended from ZANU-PF in 2004, said he planned to 
publish the paper from home.  A July 13 message from the 
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Zimbabwe said 
Paradza had told MISA staff that he had never said he would 
publish from home but rather that he was keeping some of the 
paper,s assets at his house and that all of the publishing 
company,s communications to the MIC were very clear on these 
points.  Paradza also told MISA that there were a number of 
banks that would lend the publishing company funds to resume 
operations.  It is not clear if Paradza plans to appeal the 
decision. 
 
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Delayed Daily News Decision Also Negative 
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3.  (U) On July 19, the Herald published a front-page story 
stating that the MIC had denied an operating license to 
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the 
Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, on the grounds that 
it had previously violated sections of the Access to 
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) in 
continuing to publish without MIC registration and employing 
unaccredited journalists.  The MIC had been considering this 
application by ANZ after the Supreme Court in March set aside 
MIC,s earlier refusal and ordered ANZ to submit a new 
application (ref A). 
 
4. (C) ANZ attorney Mordecai Mahlangu told Embassy staff that 
the judgment was political and was not in accordance with 
AIPPA or the Supreme Court,s ruling.  Mahlangu was 
particularly disturbed by the fact that the MIC notified 
neither ANZ nor its attorneys before the Herald article ran. 
He said that MIC chair Mahoso should have recused himself 
from the decision due to his obvious bias and a previous 
Supreme Court ruling ordering his recusal.  The Herald 
article reported that ANZ had requested Mahoso,s recusal on 
those grounds but that Mahoso could not recuse himself 
because he was not biased and because the Supreme Court had 
made no such ruling.  Mahoso planned to file an appeal with 
the Administrative Court within two days. 
 
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Comment 
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5. (C) In spite of its increasingly precarious financial 
position and its deepening international isolation, the MIC 
rulings are clear evidence that the GOZ is in no mood yet to 
make any concessions to its critics ) domestic or external. 
The regime,s overriding priority remains command and control 
of Zimbabwe, including continued tight constraints on media 
freedom, without regard to the long-term costs and 
consequences.  End comment. 
SCHULTZ 
 
 
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