Zimbabwe paper closure condemned

The paper insists part of the media law is unconstitutional

There has been widespread condemnation at Zimbabwe's decision to shut down the country's only independent newspaper.

Media groups criticised the closure of the Daily News, while the Commonwealth warned it could prompt tougher action against President Robert Mugabe's government.

Police closed down the offices of the private publication on Friday, after a court ruled the day before that it was operating illegally.

The closure robs the country of one of the few alternative voices in an increasingly restricted space Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa

The paper's editor Francis Mdlongwa told the BBC they would comply with the Supreme Court order, but would still challenge media laws.

The ruling was made because the paper had failed to register with the state Media and Information Commission (MIC), under new media laws introduced after Mr Mugabe's re-election last year.

'Major attack'

In Zimbabwe, the National Editors' Forum said the decision was a sign of desperation by the Zimbabwe Government, which is trying to tackle a severe economic crisis.

A London-based spokesman for the 54-nation Commonwealth called the paper's closure "a major attack on the freedom of the press".

The Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) said: "The closure robs the country of one of the few alternative voices in an increasingly restricted space where Zimbabweans can freely express themselves."

Staff were ordered out of the newspaper's building in the capital, Harare, on Friday evening.

About 20 police officers - some armed with rifles - arrived at the Daily News' office in central Harare, one of newspaper's reporters told AFP news agency.

Correspondents say it is not clear if the closure is intended to be permanent.

Ruling challenged

The South African news agency, SAPA, reports that the paper's owners are due to appear in court on Monday to face charges of running an illegal newspaper.

But the agency, quoting lawyers, says the paper hopes to be able to reopen through a loophole in the controversial press laws.

Mugabe signed the controversial law after his re-election

The BBC's Alistair Leithead, reporting from neighbouring South Africa, said the Daily News was the only independent voice of the people in Zimbabwe.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Saturday that the paper played a crucial role in keeping democracy alive in Zimbabwe.

It called on readers and advertisers to hit back with a boycott of state-owned newspapers

'Outlaw'

But Media and Information Commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso, speaking to Reuters news agency, said there was freedom of the press in Zimbabwe.

"But there is no freedom to act as an outlaw," he said, claiming that almost all other private newspapers which applied to the commission were registered.

In January, Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo accused the Daily News of deliberately flouting a properly constituted law and therefore being disrespectful to the judiciary and the parliament.

But the publishers of the Daily News - the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) - said the MIC had refused to accredit the journalists working for the newspaper.

More than a dozen journalists have been charged under the media law, which President Mugabe signed soon after his re-election in 2002.

Among them were several Daily News reporters and a correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper who was later deported.