State of the media in Southern Africa - 2003 • DATE: October 25, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Daily News, staff VIOLATIONS: Censored, detained, bombed (raided), threatened O n October 25 2003, police occupied the offices of Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, halting operations and detaining staff one day after a court order blocked government efforts to shut it down. Officials at The Daily News said armed police raided the newspaper’s offices in central Harare and detained 18 journalists and administrators. The employees were released after about four hours, but were required to sign statements saying they worked for the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the newspaper’s publisher. They also received a verbal warning not to return to work, newspaper staff said. • DATE: October 26, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Washington Sansole VIOLATIONS: Detained T he following day, police arrested Washington Sansole, a director of The Daily News, on charges of operating without a licence. According to Daily News legal adviser Gugulethu Moyo, authorities told the ANZ that they would not release Sansole until the ANZ’s other directors presented themselves to the police. Sansole was released after lawyers for the newspaper obtained a High Court order for his release. • DATE: October 27, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, Michael Stuart Mattinson, Brian Mutsau, Rachel Kuapara, Washington Sansole VIOLATIONS: Detained (charged) O n October 27, four directors of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the company that owns The Daily News, were arrested and will spend the night in police custody in the capital, Harare. The four directors - ANZ CEO Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, Michael Stuart Mattinson, Brian Mutsau, and Rachel Kuapara - were arrested after presenting themselves to police in Harare. They were charged with publishing a newspaper without a license under Zimbabwe’s repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). If convicted, the directors each face a large fine or a two-year jail term. • DATE: October 28, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Frank Chikowore, Stanley Karombo VIOLATIONS: Censored, threatened O n October 28 2003, freelance journalists Frank Chikowore and Stanley Karombo were barred from covering proceedings at the nomination courts in Kadoma, approximately 30 kilometres west of Harare, where political party candidates were expected to hand over their nomination papers before the end of the day. The journalists told MISA-Zimbabwe that supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party were chanting party slogans outside the courts and threatened them with incarceration for covering the event. UPDATE • DATE: November 12, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Daily News VIOLATIONS: Censored (update) So This Is Democracy? 2003 128 Media Institute of Southern Africa