State of the media in Southern Africa - 2003 • DATE: October 16, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Chris Gande, Oscar Nkala, Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu, Grey Chitika VIOLATIONS: Detained (charged) F our journalists from The Daily News have been charged by police for practicing without accreditation, as required by the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIIPA). MISA has confirmed that Bulawayo-based journalists Chris Gande, Oscar Nkala, Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu and Grey Chitika are the latest to be charged under the AIPPA. The four new charges bring to 20 the total number of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) journalists arrested under the AIPPA. • DATE: October 22, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Blessing Zulu, Newton Spicer VIOLATIONS: Detained O n October 22 2003, journalist Blessing Zulu of the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper and freelancer Newton Spicer were arrested while covering a demonstration organised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). Lawyers representing the detained journalists have been denied access to their clients and have also been threatened with incarceration. Photographer Simon Sithole and trainee journalist Takunda Mawodza, both from the statecontrolled Herald newspaper, were also allegedly detained for a brief period for covering the demonstration. • DATE: October 22, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: NCA demonstrators VIOLATIONS: Other O n October 22 2003, more than 300 NCA members were also arrested, including NCA leaders who were lobbying for a new democratic people’s constitution. The NCA was demonstrating, among other things, against the government’s failure to deal with the collapse of the economy and the hardships caused by bad governance. Heavily armed riot police put an end to the demonstration. The journalists were detained at the Harare Central police station, together with the 300 demonstrators. UPDATE • DATE: October 24, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Daily News VIOLATIONS: Victory (positive judgement) O n October 24 2003, Zimbabwe’s Administrative Court ordered that The Daily News, which was shut down by the government in September, be granted an operating licence. The Administrative Court made the ruling following the newspaper’s appeal for review of a decision by the Media and Information Commission (MIC) to deny it an operating licence. The judge ruled that the government-appointed MIC had wrongly denied The Daily News a licence. MISA has confirmed that the judge ordered the licence to be issued as soon as possible. If a licence has not been issued by November 31, then a licence will be deemed to have been issued. In addition, the judge said the commission had not been properly constituted, invalidating all its actions to date. So This Is Democracy? 2003 127 Media Institute of Southern Africa