Launching a new paper?

Reutors reported yesterday Trevor Ncube hopes to get approval to start a new newspaper in Zimbabwe. The newspaper would be a "non-partisan and independent." It would also provide at least 300 jobs in a country with an unemployment rate of over 90 percent.

But will Ncube get the approval? He currently publishes two other newspapers, the Zimbabwe Independent, The Standard, and the Mail & Guardian of South Africa. All of these have been critical of Mugabe. Ncube even had his passport seized in 2005 in a question of citizenship that many saw as an attempt to silence him. Originally from Zimbabwe, he currently lives in South Africa.

What could be an even bigger problem is trying to persuade foreign investors to provide the millions of dollars it would cost to start the newspaper.

Will the new government really be more leneant and allow another newspaper with the possiblility of criticism? It would definitely be a giant step towards freeing the press.