Zimbabwe's largest private newspaper was granted a court order yesterday barring police from interfering with publishing operations, the second to be issued in favour of the embattled paper in less than a month.

Gugulethu Moyo, legal adviser for the Daily News, said its lawyers filed an urgent application with the Harare High Court for an order to police to stop interfering with publishing operations and to end their occupation of the paper's premises in the capital.

Said Moyo: "The order was issued today.

"We should be able to resume operations, because their (the police's) action is unlawful," she said.

A Zimbabwe court in the southwestern city of Bulawayo ruled last month that the Daily News could resume publishing but Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's information minister, immediately opposed the judgment, saying it had "no practical force".

The Daily News was shut down by armed police in September after the Supreme Court ruled it was operating illegally by not being registered with the state-appointed media commission. – Sapa-AFP.