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Zimbabwe Report

Took offence that the paper had given space to Archbishop Ncube

by Zimdaily.com

Harare - The government's Media and Information Commission has threatened to close down Zimbabwe's latest newspaper, the Weekly Times, within seven days. In a letter to Mthwakazi Publishing House, publishers of the community-based paper, commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso, accused the publishers of lying that their paper would be a general news product when according to him it was "running political commentary through and through." Mahoso also accuses the Weekly Times of partiality and takes offence that the paper, which published its first issue last week, had given space to Catholic archbishop Pius Ncube, who is a known government critic. The commission chairman is also unhappy the paper's publishers began selling copies of the first issue on January 2 before first sending some copies to its offices. Mahoso's letter dated January 5, 2005 reads in part: "We understand that the paper came out on Sunday, 2 January 2005 an was being sold on the streets here long before copies were delivered at the Commission. As a result, the Commission had to purchase a copy on the streets on 4 January, after receiving several calls from surprised readers." The government's media watchman said because of the alleged offences, he was going to suspend or cancel the paper's registration certificate and gave the publishers, "seven days, to show cause why your publishing licence should not be suspended or cancelled." The publishers and the editor of the paper were not readily available for comment yesterday. Three newspapers including the country's only independent and biggest circulating daily paper, the Daily News, were shut in the last two years under tough state media laws.