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Mugabe fears forces mobile phone firm to switch off news
Nigel Hangarume, ZimOnline
April 14, 2007

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1222

HARARE - Zimbabwe's leading mobile phone network operator has suspended a popular news service reportedly fearing a backlash from President Robert Mugabe's increasingly paranoid regime that has in the past accused the company of disseminating anti-government propaganda.

Econet Wireless has discontinued the Execbrief and News on Demand service - launched in 2000 - which daily provided subscribers with sport, business, markets and political news updates from different sources.

Some of the news sources included the BBC World Service, CNN, Voice of America's Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa - all Harare says are hostile and spreading anti-Mugabe propaganda.

According to highly placed insiders, management at Econet took the decision as a precautionary measure after they were warned by Mugabe's secret intelligence agency.

Econet spokesman in Harare, Dakarai Matanga, did not return calls to his mobile number as he was said to be locked up in a meeting yesterday.

A customer care officer at Econet, however, confirmed the development.

"We are sorry we have suspended that service for the meantime until further notice," she said without giving reasons.

In the past the cellular company has been accused of circulating anti-government news in the run-up to the 2002 presidential election which Mugabe almost lost to the opposition.

Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa lives in South Africa after the government accused him of funding the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Masiyiwa, who had to fight the government in courts until Econet was licensed in 1998, incensed Mugabe's regime when he bailed out The Daily News, seen as an opposition mouthpiece, and eventually became the major shareholder of the independent paper.

The government responded by shutting down The Daily News under the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which has also been used to shut down three other newspapers.

In November 2006, Zimbabwe's military said the country's mobile phone operators were threatening national security by using independent connections to the outside world.

The government had sought to enact a 'Big Brother' law enabling the state to monitor all calls.

Econet's decision to put on hold its news service comes at a time the government has intensified a crackdown on opposition and all media perceived to be anti-government.

A former cameraman with the state broadcaster was last week found dead after he had been abducted by suspected state security agents. The cameraman was accused of supplying video footage to Western news networks banned in Zimbabwe.

Journalists working for the independent and foreign media have also been targeted. Last month an opposition activist was shot dead by police while MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and scores of his followers were brutally assaulted in police custody.

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