Daily News (Harare)
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Associated Newspapers Group |
| Founder(s) | Geoffrey Nyarota |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Harare |
| Website | www.dailynews.co.zw |
The Daily News is a Zimbabwean independent newspaper published in Harare. It was founded in 1999 by Geoffrey Nyarota, a former editor of the Bulawayo Chronicle. Bearing the motto "Telling it like it is", the Daily News swiftly became Zimbabwe's most popular newspaper. However, the paper also suffered two bombings, allegedly by Zimbabwean security forces. Nyarota was arrested six times and reportedly was the target of a government assassination plot. After being forced from the paper by new management in December 2002, Nyarota left Zimbabwe. The News was banned by the government in September 2003.
In May 2010, a government commission granted the paper the right to re-open.
In 1989, Geoffrey Nyarota helped to break the Willowgate scandal with the Bulawayo Chronicle. The investigation led to the resignation of five ministers of President Robert Mugabe's government, but also resulted in Nyarota being removed from his post.
After some years in exile, Nyarota founded the Daily News, an independent daily newspaper, in 1999. The paper stated that it would be neither "pro-government" nor "anti-government", but would "be a medium for vibrant discourse among the divergent political, social, religious and other groups of Zimbabwe", as well as fight for press freedom and freedom of speech. Its first issue appeared on 21 March 1999. The newspaper's motto was "Telling it like it is".
Within a year, the newspaper had passed the circulation of the state-owned Herald, with a daily circulation of 105,000 copies; the Herald's circulation was reported to have fallen by 50% during the same period.
President Mugabe accused the paper of being a "mouthpiece" for the Movement for Democratic Change, a political coalition opposed to his rule, while Nyarota asserted that the paper was independent and criticised both parties.
During his editorship of the Daily News, Nyarota was arrested six times. On 1 August 2000, the News reported that Zimbabwe's secret police, the Central Intelligence Organisation, had sent a man named Bernard Masara to kill Nyarota; however, after meeting Nyarota in a lift, Masara changed his mind and warned him of the plot. Masara then called his employer with the paper's editors listening so that they could verify the source of the plan.
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Wikipedia