The Zimbabwe Media Commission followed through Friday on the decision announced earlier this week to issue licenses to four more daily papers that will compete with the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
Chief Executive Officer Raphael Khumalo of Alpha Media Holdings, which plans to launch Newsday in June, told VOA Studio 7 reporter Sithandekile Mhlanga that the commission issued a four-year publishing certificate.
Other publications heading to newsstands include the Daily News, the Gazette and the Mail. The Worker, published by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, will step up from a monthly to a weekly publishing schedule.
Elsewhere, journalists at a media stakeholders conference in Harare welcomed the licensing of new daily papers, but expressed concern that the s airwaves are not being liberalized too, as Irwin Chifera reported.