Zimbabwe: Zim licenses 4 daily newspapers

Harare – The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) yesterday issued licenses to four daily newspapers, including The Daily News that was banned by the Media and Information Commission (MIC) in 2003, turning a fresh page for the country’s media landscape, which had been suffocated by the shortage of alternative voices in the dailies section.

 

The ZMC was created last year to replace the MIC that President Robert Mugabe had used to police the newspaper industry.

 

The media commission is part of several new commissions and bodies formed by the new unity government of Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as part of a drive to democratise Zimbabwe's politics.

 

ZMC chairman Godfrey Majonga told reporters last night that in addition to The Daily News – Zimbabwe’s biggest circulating daily newspaper when it was shut down by the government in 2003 for allegedly violating AIPPA – Alpha Media Holdings’ NewsDay, The Daily Gazette, which is owned by Modus Publications and a new newspaper, The Mail, had been given the go ahead to publish.

 

The publications are expected to hit the streets in less than seven days after their licenses are processed.

 

Alpha Media Holdings already publishes two weeklies, Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard while its proprietor, Trevor Ncube also controls the South African registered weekly newspaper, The Mail and Guardian.

 

The Mail is owned by a consortium of youths who accessed funds from the Youth Empowerment Fund run by the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment.

 

Modus Publications is the publisher of The Financial Gazette.

 

The four daily newspapers licensed yesterday were the only dailies that had applied, the ZMC said.

 

 Majonga said the ZMC had also given the green light to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions to change the frequency of its publication, The Worker, from a monthly to a weekly.

 

“The ZMC considered applications to re-launch The Daily News, to change the frequency of The Worker from a monthly to a weekly, Fruitlink Publications to launch The Mail, from Alpha Media to launch NewsDay and from Modus Publications to re-launch The Daily Gazette,” Majonga said.

 

 “The ZMC has accepted all the above applicants to have licenses. All publications with a Zimbabwean content, which targets the Zimbabwean readership, should be registered with the Commission. The ZMC is committed to open the Zimbabwean media space. The licenses will be issued tomorrow or immediately the day after and they can start publishing,” the ZMC chairman said.

 

He said newspapers such as the South African headquartered regional Sunday newspaper, The Sunday Times and The Mail and Guardian had not applied, emphasising these newspapers should immediately register because they were using Zimbabwean journalists, at the same time registering will make the Commission’s job easy in case they are administrative problems, such as lawsuits, involving the foreign publications.

 

The ZMC had also agreed to keep former MIC chairman, Tafataona Mahoso as its chief executive officer but sources said his presence had caused friction and divisions in the Commission.

 

Mahoso – dubbed the “media hangman” by Zimbabwean journalists – oversaw the closure of five privately owned newspapers and instigated the arrest of scores of reporters as the Harare authorities cracked down on independent newspapers that the government accused of backing the then opposition MDC party.

 

Majonga called for applications and registrations of new mass media houses and journalists on March 30, asking prospective media operators to provide among other things a code of ethics, projected balance sheet, editorial charter, code of conduct for employees, market analysis, attach a dummy, mission statement, house style book and projected three-year cashflow statement.

 

Local media houses are required to pay an application fee of US$500, registration fee of US$1 500 and a renewal fee of US$1 000 while application and registration for news agencies is set at US$1 300 per year and the renewal of registration will be US$500.

 

Local journalists have to fork out a total of US$30 to work in the country while local journalists working for foreign media are required to pay a total of US$120 down from the US$3 000 that the now defunct Media Information Commission used to charge.

 

Foreign media organisations or news agencies who are willing to set office in the country are expected to pay a total of US$2 500 down from about US$30 000 per year while those from the Southern African Development Community will pay US$1 250.

 

- May 27, 2010 by Caroline Mvundura

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Source: www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx (accessed on 31.05.2010)