A court in Zimbabwe is today due to begin hearing an appeal by the Daily News, closed down two months ago, to be allowed to publish, the paper's legal adviser said yesterday.

Last month the administrative court ruled that the Daily News, which is a staunch critic of President Robert Mugabe, should be given a licence by the state-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) before November 30.

Gugulethu Moyo said the Daily News wanted that ruling – set aside when the MIC lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court - to be enforced.

"We're making an application to the adminstrative court to enforce the October 24 judgement," Moyo said.

"There's a hearing set down for tomorrow (Monday) morning," she said.

The Supreme Court still has not ruled on the MIC's appeal.

Moyo said they had approached the lower court again because the Daily News was likely to experience financial losses by waiting for an outcome of the media commission's Supreme Court appeal.

The Daily News is the country's most popular newspaper, and the only alternative to the two state-run dailies, The Herald and The Chronicle.

It was closed down in September by armed police after the Supreme Court ruled it was operating illegally because it was not registered with the media commission.

When the paper tried to register the media commission turned down its application.

The October ruling was seen as a victory for the Daily News, which published a comeback edition a day later.

But police again shut down the paper on October 25, saying the paper was not yet registered. It has not been published since. – Sapa-AFP.