Four newspaper directors are charged in Mugabe's media crackdown

Four directors of The Daily News have been charged with operating an "illegal company" as President Robert Mugabe's siege of Zimbabwe's independent media intensifies.

The four were expected to spend the night in jail, their lawyer Gugulethu Moyo said. The paper's chairman, Strive Masiyiwa, who is based in Johannesburg, vowed to fight the Zimbabwe government until his newspaper was allowed to publish freely. He said he would also sue the Mugabe regime for compensation to cover losses while the newspaper remained shut.

The police yesterday released two people they had detained at the weekend and held as hostages for surrender of the wanted directors. One of the detainees, Tulepi Nkomo, is a niece of Sam Nkomo, the chief executive of Associated Newspapers Zimbabwe (ANZ). She spent two days in jail despite not being involved with the newspaper. The police arrested her after they failed to find Mr Nkomo.

The second hostage, a board member and former judge Washington Sansole, was arrested on Sunday, barely 24 hours after the police had raided Mr Nkomo's home. Yesterday morning Mr Nkomo and the ANZ directors Stuart Mattinson, Rachel Kupara and Brian Mutsau handed themselves in at Harare central police station.

Mr Sansole was released when a court in Bulawayo ordered his release, while Tulepi Nkomo was set free after paying a fine. But Ms Moyo said that the real reason for their release was the surrender of the four directors..

The charges against the ANZ directors follow a raid against The Daily News on Saturday in which 18 journalists were arrested, barely 24 hours after a court had ordered the paper to be reopened.

President Mugabe's government shut down The Daily News and its sister Sunday publication on 12 September, after the state-run media commission refused them a licence to publish.

The publishers appealed to the country's Administrative Court, which handles disputes over government decisions. The court found that the commission had exhibited bias against the papers and also ruled the commission was "improperly constituted." Most of the newspaper's equipment, including 129 computers, was seized by the police when it was originally shut last month. It has not yet been returned despite an order of the High Court.

The Zimbabwe government claimed yesterday that the newspaper's decision to re-open on Saturday was still illegal. Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of Information and Publicity in the President's Office, told state media: "The law is clear, the ANZ are not registered." No mass media owner could operate without a licence, he said.

Zimbabwe's harsh media law has seen the arrests of about 40 journalists and the expulsion of all foreign correspondents in the country since its enactment last year.