Daily News Ban Must Be Investigated – MISA-Zimbabwe

In a front page story on Thursday, the newspaper said the ban in Mutoko and Murewa was allegedly being effected by Zanu (PF) supporters who were forcing people to read state-owned publications.

But MISA-Zimbabwe on Thursday protested the ban in a statement saying the Daily News was operating lawfully in Zimbabwe and as such  the authorities should act against those that are taking the law into their own hands and depriving citizens’ of their fundamental right to access alternative information without hindrance from any quarter.

“MISA-Zimbabwe calls on the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) as the licensing authority to get to the bottom of these unlawful acts as mandated under its constitutional obligation to defend media freedom and the citizens’ right to freedom of expression,” read part of the media watchdog statement.

In the story, Daily News Editor Stanley Gama, said he was not surprised by these developments as his newspaper threatened some people in the government especially those to whom the “concepts of democracy and freedom of speech are anathema”.

“It is clear that some people are scared of the truth. They are scared of our incisive and balanced reporting and what this means for their backward views and political cultures. The good news is that they will fail in their ill considered mission because Zimbabweans love our papers and they won’t allow these anarchists to continue doing this,” said Gama.