Free Republic

Zimbabwe's embattled independent daily Friday filed contempt of court charges against police after they refused to allow staff to re-enter their offices, defying a High Court order, a company official told AFP. Police on Friday barred staff members at the Daily News from returning to their central Harare offices despite a court ruling on Thursday allowing the paper to reopen. The Daily News, Zimbabwe's best-selling daily, was shut down a week ago for operating illegally. It has not appeared on the streets since. "We filed our papers before lunch. We're waiting for the registrar to set the matter down for...

Zimbabwe's High Court on Thursday ordered that the country's sole privately owned paper, the Daily News, be allowed to resume publishing almost a week after police shut it down for operating illegally. Judge Yunis Omerjee granted a court order requested by the paper, which has often been critical of President Robert Mugabe, allowing it to resume operations pending the outcome of an application to register under tough media laws. "The provisional order is granted in terms of the order sought," Omerjee said in the central Harare fourt. Earlier, the newspapers' lawyers had argued before the court that Zimbabwe police had...

Police seized computers and other equipment Tuesday from Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, which was shut down last week for failing to register under sweeping media laws. The closing of the Daily News comes amid a government crackdown on dissent as Zimbabwe struggles with an economic collapse and international isolation. President Robert Mugabe pushed through a passage of severe new security laws last year allowing the government to ban public gatherings, and his opponents have been attacked and arrested. In Washington, the United States urged Zimbabwe's government on Monday to allow the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday...