Yesterday a three-member delegation met Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Kaire Mbuende, members of the Namibian media and civic society to express concern over the closure of privately-owned Daily News newspaper.

They also expressed concern over the arrest of journalists and threats to the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa).

The Zimbabwean delegation comprises Misa Regional Deputy Chairperson, Reyhana Masters-Smith, former Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Tawanda Hondora, and the editor of a privately-owned newspaper The Standard, Bornwell Chakaodza.

The trio said the aim of their mission was to urge regional leaders to use their influence to have the Zimbabwe government end its crackdown on the media.

"We know that President Mugabe (Zimbabwean leader) does listen to his fellow leaders in the region like President Sam Nujoma.

Maybe by raising these issues with them they will convince him to repeal his draconian media legislations," Chakaodza said.

Masters-Smith said the Zimbabwean regime's vicious crackdown on the private and independent press was a political act which has now been extended beyond the mainstream media.

"It was journalists from these media organisations who were harassed, intimidated, arrested, beaten and their equipment confiscated.

Now ordinary people on the street are being beaten for reading independent newspapers of wearing press freedom T-shirts," Masters-Smith said.

She said the Zimbabwean media and civil society was not only campaigning for the re-opening of The Daily News, but also for the repeal of that country's "notorious" Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act.

Since the enactment of the two laws in February 2002, the Zimbabwean media has been under siege from the government with the closure of an independent newspaper and the arrest of more than 62 journalists.

Last month, The Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily, was shut down after failing to register with a state media commission established under the new laws, which impose a stringent registration and licensing process on all newspapers and journalists in the country The Daily News challenged the law as unconstitutional, but a High Court ruling warned the paper could not operate outside the law.

However, before the paper's owners could register the police closed it down.

Police entered by force and closed down the newspaper premises, seizing material including 127 computers.

The paper has not been able to resume publication for over two weeks now.

On September 25, the police called 45 of the paper's journalists to Harare police station, based on a list allegedly provided by the state-run Media Information Commission (MIC).

Eleven journalists were charged and released and a Police manhunt has reportedly been launched to trace the remaining journalists who have fled the capital.

A further High Court decision had authorised the temporary use of the newspaper's premises by staff, although still preventing the publication of articles.

On Wednesday a High Court judge dismissed an application by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the owners of The Daily News, to have its seized equipment returned.

Yesterday, the Administrative Court, a lesser division of the country's High Court, was due to rule on an appeal by ANZ against The Daily News' banning order.

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