Internet service providers yet to agree to monitor e-mails

Zimbabwe's state-owned telecommunications company, TelOne, has proposed that Internet service providers (ISPs) monitor all their customers' e-mails, but the ISPs have yet to agree. The Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association (ZISPA) told IRIN it was seeking clarity on a proposed amendment to the existing franchise agreement between TelOne and ZISPA members, but chairman Shadreck Nkala refused to divulge any details. An ISP representative confirmed that the proposed amendment, sent to all ISPs last month, asked them to monitor all e-mails and take measures to block any "illegal material which was harmful to the country". "According to the new amendment we will have to install a new system, which will store all the e-mails that go through our system, and then we will have to sift through them. This is an extremely difficult thing to do," said the representative. Nkala said none of ZISPA's members had signed the proposed contract amendment and "there is no monitoring of any sort of any e-mails at the moment". The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has voiced its concern over any move to clamp down on internet communications and has called the proposed amendment "unconstitutional". MISA spokesperson Raphweat Mukundu pointed out that "the e-mail is the only remaining viable alternative for the limited voice of civil society [in Zimbabwe]. It is our only channel of communication, and for interaction with the outside world. The move will seriously violate our few remaining rights." The government of President Robert Mugabe has been accused by local and international human rights groups of suppressing perceived opposition. The country's only private daily newspaper, the Daily News, which had the largest circulation, was forced to close when it failed to register with a controversial government-appointed media commission last year.