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Government seeks internet controls

    JOHANNESBURG

    Internet service providers in Zimbabwe are drawing up a petition to persuade President Robert Mugabe not to approve a new law giving him powers to monitor and intercept electronic mail and other communications, news reports said on Monday.

    Brian Kagoro of Lawyers for Human Rights told the BBC that the changes, coming just a month before scheduled parliamentary elections, were “designed to remind internet service providers, (ISPs) and others that they operated only at the mercy of the president”.

    Section 98 of the bill allows the president to order service providers to “intercept or monitor communications or suspend services to individuals in the interests of national security or the maintenance of law and order”.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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