GOZ KEEPS THE BOOT ON THE DAILY NEWS

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
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LONDON FOR GURNEY
PARIS FOR NEARY
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2013
TAGS: PREL PHUM KPAO KMDR ZI
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