Zimbabwe Chapter 12:06 (BSA), Criminal Law Amendment Act to restrictive pieces of legislation. These Acts make it difficult to assert the constitutional right to freedom of expression as they override it. The judiciary also plays a vital role in the advancement or restriction of freedom of expression. A judiciary which is sympathetic to freedom of expression and media freedom can interpret the constitutional provisions to include all aspects of free expression including media freedom and other forms of communication. An example of such liberal interpretation of the freedom of expression clause can be found in how the Supreme Court stretched the interpretation to include the freedom to communicate without the restrictions of monopolistic telecommunications laws. The Supreme Court therefore struck down as unconstitutional telecommunications legislation which gave the government monopoly in the telecommunications sector on the basis that the monopoly restricted free communication and therefore free expression in Zimbabwe. The current Supreme Court, which is composed of partisan judges, however, does not interpret the constitutional provisions on freedom of expression in a liberal and favourable manner. When The Daily News was closed down by the state, the then Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo, argued in court that “freedom of expression is guaranteed, not freedom of the press”. Instead of following the liberal and all inclusive interpretation of freedom of expression, the current Supreme Court considered that the “dirty hands” doctrine was so important as to override freedom of expression. The Daily News was closed for not having registered with the Media and Information Commission (MIC) as provided for under AIPPA. The paper should also have registered before going to the court – without such registration the paper would have “dirty hands”. In the 17th Amendment of the Constitution, lawmakers added a unique standard for measuring the legitimacy of freedoms and arguably that of expression, i.e. through the determination of wheth4 African Media Barometer - Zimbabwe 2006