Shuttered by the Zimbabwean government in 2003 for its critical reporting on the policies of President Robert Mugabe, the Daily News returned to the streets of Harare on Friday under a new license issued by the reformed Zimbabwe Media Commission.
The Daily News put out a special promotional issue to mark its relaunch but will publish on a daily basis starting on Friday, March 25, its management said.
Managing Editor John Gambanga said the Daily News will continue to "take a critical stand against bad governance and expose it for the entire nation to see.”
It joins the 30,000-circulation Newsday as one of two independent dailies in the country.
Once Zimbabwe’s best-selling newspaper, the Daily News will battle it out on the streets with Newsday and the state-controlled Herald and Chronicle daily newspapers.
State media continues to enjoy a monopoly in radio and television broadcasting and with elections in the offing there is little expectation that situation will change soon.
Before the Daily News was forced to close in 2003, its printing presses were blown up, its reporters were arrested on numerous occasions for writing critical articles and its offices were more than once targeted by gasoline bombs.
Analyst Eric Matingo of the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe said the resumption of publication of the Daily News eight years after its closure is inspiring.
