The Rhodesian press, already effectively muzzled by years of censorship culminating, in January this year, in a blanket ban on all news and other information relating directly or indirectly to the war and to security measures unless issued or cleared by the military authorities, has been dealt further blows by the regime's transitional government.
- 28 August - reimposition, this time via a 'D' Notice issued by the National Security Committee, of the prohibition on all references to, or publication of statements by, the Patriotic Front and its organizations inside Zimbabwe (ANC (Zimbabwe) (ZAPU) and ZANU (People's Movement)). This ban was originally imposed on the domestic press in January 1978 in terms of the Emergency Powers Regulations but relaxed in mid-May following the signing of the "internal settlement" agreement.
- 22 September — two ZAPU (Patriotic Front) publications, the Zimbabwe Review and the Zimbabwe People's Voice, were reported to have been banned following the banning of the organization itself.
- 2 October — the Zimbabwe Times, owned by the Lonrho group of companies, which had succeeded during its relatively short life in becoming the most widely-read newspaper to be directed at an African audience, was banned by the white co-Minister of Law and Order as a security risk. Its last editorial had criticised the transitional government for wasting time discussing "irrelevant issues". Launched as a weekly in May 1977, it went daily towards the end of that year. Despite the restrictive climate in which it was obliged to operate, its reporting of events had made it unpopular in ruling circles and gained it the reputation, justified or not, of supporting the Patriotic Front. In August 1978 a Zimbabwe Times reporter was threatened with "dire consequences" after he had made private inquiries about the current spate of resignations from Bishop Muzorewa's United African National Council. Ten days later the paper's editor, Mr. Herbert Munangatire, appeared in court on charges under the Emergency Powers Regulations and the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act of evading military censorship by publishing security information without official permission, and publishing a false statement and another likely to cause "alarm and despondency". He was remanded on bail, but failed to appear in Salisbury magistrate's court on 5 October. A warrant was thereupon issued for his arrest.
On 19 October the regime confirmed that the ban on the Zimbabwe Times extended to all other publications issuing from its parent company or intended as a substitute or continuation of the newspaper. Plans announced by the editorial staff to launch a new black-orientated newspaper, the World, were duly scrapped. The first edition of the World had been due to go on sale the following day, 20 October.
