I just read from the Editorsweblog about independent news website launched in Zimbabwe. Now this disturbing news came in to my email box: “The Zimbabwe government is planning to acquire high-tech equipment from China for the purpose of bugging the internet. This is to enable it to interfere with the flow of information it considers subversive as well as the operations of independent internet based media outlets.
……Sources within the CIO said that the equipment from China is expected to be delivered next month. Government would push for the promulgation of a law allowing it to bug the internet for security reasons. President Robert Mugabe announced during the opening of parliament last week that government would introduce a bill in the house to give it powers to control
communication systems for the sake of ‘tightening state security’. ”
The full article is on the very news site: Zim Online.
More from the Zim online report:
“An official at the Chinese embassy in Harare, Nan Xiao, said he could not discuss the matter. ‘I can¹t comment on that issue of state security. If the government of Zimbabwe is taking security measures it is entirely up to them to announce them,’ he said.
Minister of State for National Security Nicholas Goche also refused to comment. ‘Do you think such issues are discussed in the media? Where have you seen issues of national security being discussed in the media?’ ”
