Zimbabwe paper back on streets
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The Daily News is the only independent paper in Zimbabwe
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HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's largest privately owned daily newspaper resumed publication Thursday when police observed a High Court order to heed a previous ruling allowing it to print.
The limited eight-page issue of the Daily News was only the paper's second appearance since police first moved onto its premises in September when a court found it was operating illegally without a licence as required by tough new media laws.
The Daily News has been critical of President Robert Mugabe since it opened in 1999, and says the media legislation is designed to muzzle critics as Zimbabwe grapples with a political and economic crisis.
Earlier this month, police disregarded a High Court ruling to let the paper resume publication pending a final determination on its legal status.
In a front-page story, the Daily News said state lawyers had conceded in court on Wednesday police had no legal basis to occupy its offices and printing press in the capital Harare.
Sipepa Nkomo, chief executive of the paper's owners Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, said Thursday's edition consisted mainly of old stories and was merely intended to let readers know "we are back."
The Daily News initially refused to register with a government-appointed media commission under the legislation enacted in 2002.
The commission has appealed to the Supreme Court against a ruling by a lower court ordering approval of the paper's subsequent application last year for a licence.
Mugabe's government says the legislation is necessary to restore professionalism in journalism. It accuses privately owned media of waging a propaganda campaign against the government's seizure of farms from whites for redistribution to landless blacks.
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