Zimbabwe's outspoken daily paper is 'illegal'

[dArKeR]

Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has ruled that a private daily newspaper which is critical of President Robert Mugabe's government is operating illegally because it has not registered under tough media laws, state radio said on Thursday.

Chief Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku and a full bench of the court made the ruling after the Daily News, the country's highest circulating paper, had challenged a section of the country's media laws that requires news organisations to register with a government body.

The ruling means that the publishers of the Daily News, and its Sunday edition, the Daily News on Sunday, will have to register under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) before challenging the law.

Most other weekly independent papers in the country are believed to have already registered.

The section under dispute rules that a news organisation can only operate "after registering and receiving a certificate of registration" from the government's Media and Information Commission.

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