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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Interception of Communications Bill - Index of articles
Harare
wants ISPs to fund installation of spying equipment
ZimOnline
April 22, 2006
http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=11996
BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwean
government plans to compel internet service providers (IPS) to install
equipment worth billions of dollars to enable the state to snoop on online
communication, according to a proposed new law.
Under the Interception
of Communications Bill, the state will be empowered to monitor and
intercept internet communications between citizens while ISPs will be
required to buy and install software that will enable the interception
of information by state security agents.
But the Harare authorities
who are battling a severe six-year old economic crisis, are said to be
too broke to fund the huge operation.
Section Three of the
controversial Bill says that internet service providers should have facilities
to re-route user information to the monitoring centre that will be monitored
by state agents.
"A telecommunication
service provider is required to install hardware and software facilities
and devices to enable interception of communications," reads part
of the Bill.
Internet service providers
who spoke to ZimOnline yesterday criticised the proposals saying they
had no capacity to raise the required funds to buy the equipment and software.
The service providers
said the interception equipment alone without the software, costs in excess
of five million rand (about Z$180 billion).
"If this Bill
is enacted into law in its current state, most of the ISPs will be out
of business because we cannot afford to buy the equipment which is over
five million rand," said an internet service provider who refused
to be named for fear of victimisation.
Last week, Zimbabwe's
privately owned media resolved to challenge in court the proposed new
law saying it was an unreasonable piece of legislation that should not
be allowed in a democratic country.
Zimbabwe already has
some of the worst media laws in the world, with journalists for example,
being liable to two-year jail terms if they are caught practising without
a licence from the state's Media and Information Commission.
At least four newspapers
including the biggest daily, the Daily News, have been shut down in the
past three years for violating the country's tough media laws. The World
Association of Newspapers says Zimbabwe is among the three worst countries
for journalists. - ZimOnline
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