The Herald reports that Reuters affiliated online news agency, The Source, this week failed to have their case referred to the Constitutional Court. The referral case was heard by Justice Joseph Musakwa (the same judge that granted an order to have them raided by Econet) and refused to do so on the basis that The Source undermined the authority of the court.
They undermined this authority apparently by writing to the Sheriff and the the police asking them to not execute the raid order.
In addition to this setback, The Source have been asked to pay Econet and Steward Bank the legal costs of the matter thus far. Quite a bummer if you were the Source, but also quite expected if you ask the same guy who asked that you be raided to refer the matter to someone else for “better judgement”.
We don’t imagine that The Source is not going to pursue this case further ofcourse.
Get some background on this issue from these articles we wrote before:
- The Source is raided
- Is the raid on The Source a violation of the Constitution?
- Press conference disrupted as Econet’s Nyambirai refuses to apologize for media raid
- Steward Bank defends its reasons for raiding an online news agency
Here’s part of yesterday’s order
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3 comments
I might be wrong, but even if The Source acted as claimed; these actions don’t seem to be a valid reason for them to denied access / permission to approach the High Court or the Constitutional Court:- Subsection 85 (2) of the Constitution on ENFORCEMENT OF FUNDAMENTALHUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS states that “The fact that a person has contravened a law does not debar them from approaching a court for relief under subsection (1).”
The best or worst censure the Court can inflict on the Source is a punitive costs order rather than denying the Source access to the Courts in violation of sub section 69 (3) on the right of access to court as read with subsection 85 (2).
I take it The Source can now approach the Supreme or Constitutional Court directly given that Justice Musakwa has given his judgment on its application for referral to the ConCourt ito Part 1 of Chapter 8.
Techzim thank you for availing the Provisional Order, but I would appreciate it if you also avail the entire Steward Bank / Econet Court Application & its Heads of Argument in the matter just to get a better understanding of where they were coming from.
I’m no lawyer, but this sounds a lot like marking your own homework. (>_<)
Hi Tapiwa, there; what an excellent and simple way of putting it!!!