One of the ironies of the situation here in Zimbabwe is that the thought that people's e-mail communications might possibly be monitored by the government has resulted in people being scared to say anything political in their correspondence. That is a sad development as it means that Internet censorship has already been achieved without a single piece of equipment actually being put in place. Let us encourage Zimbabweans to continue to use their e-mail as a medium of free expression as it is one of the few avenues still left in this country.
For the moment, there is no law against sending an e-mail that is critical of the government. The recent prosecution of people for circulating an e-mail message was on the basis of the content which was promoting violent action against the government. The originator of the e-mail message was clearly encouraging a breach of the law, so forwarding it was very foolish. That is not to say that the act of forwarding it was a violation of the law - if the forwarders were not in fact endorsing the content but rather passing it on as news. The people charged were presumably easily identifiable because they used e-mail addresses with local ISPs and forwarded the mail to so many people that it ultimately fell into the wrong hands. I doubt that any high-tech interception equipment was involved.
It is significant however that at a time when Zimbabwe's president should be talking of taking control of communication technologies we hear that the apparent intent is to ensure that such control is to be used to restrict the rights of Zimbabwean citizens to communicate freely. The speech by President Mugabe expressed concern over "the iniquity of hegemony", yet it is his government which is extending its own hegemony over all aspects of communications now that they have forcibly closed down the only independent daily newspaper Zimbabwe had.
I would not be surprised if attempts were made by government here to implement the draconian provisions already enacted in current legislation for monitoring and interception of Internet and other telecommunication technologies - all in the name of protecting national sovereignty. And indeed they may even criminalise the sending of e-mail and hosting of websites critical of government. Let us hope that it is the sovereignty of the Zimbabwean people that ultimately prevails.

Jim Holland (system administrator, MANGO - Zimbabwe's non-profit e-mail service)

Do not worry about planned interceptions of emails, I think the cost of the machinery that monitors that will be prohibitive. Plus the time of that has already ran out. I also don't think people of Zimbabwe do care about propaganda from state medias because everyone knows the truth. Except that the propanda is boring, otherwise we do not give ears on that.

The only people we fear to be the victims of propaganda are people from rural areas. However ,they do not often have money to buy newspapers and Tv sets. We are just waiting for time.

I also feel very sorry for Thambo Mbeki for his ignorance, his unlearned attitude and unrepent about people of Zimbabwe. His is the main traitor and barrage to our revolution. He stops every step we try to do.

I also applause Tony Blair for his comment that ,'we can not waist time debating coloniar issues, its old debate'.After all we have new global leaders who can not be dragged back to square revenges. we can not move either way with people like Mugabe.

Please help Zimbabwe. We are leaving in exiles , separated from our families and its a shame

more mails

Do not worry about planned interceptions of emails, I think the cost of the machinery that monitors that will be prohibitive. Plus the time of that has already ran out. I also don't think people of Zimbabwe do care about propaganda from state medias because everyone knows the truth. Except that the propanda is boring, otherwise we do not give ears on that.

The only people we fear to be the victims of propaganda are people from rural areas. However ,they do not often have money to buy newspapers and Tv sets. We are just waiting for time.

I also feel very sorry for Thambo Mbeki for his ignorance, his unlearned attitude and unrepent about people of Zimbabwe. His is the main traitor and barrage to our revolution. He stops every step we try to do.

I also applause Tony Blair for his comment that ,'we can not waist time debating coloniar issues, its old debate'.After all we have new global leaders who can not be dragged back to square revenges. we can not move either way with people like Mugabe.

Please help Zimbabwe. We are leaving in exiles , separated from our families and its a shame

more mails

What are the possibilities - and difficulties - of WebTV transmission from outside Zimbabwe, especially among Zimbabweans in the diaspora, as a way of providing alternative media to Zimbabweans at home?
SWRadio Africa is doing a great job with their short wave and online radio broadcasts, but visual transmission would, I think, have a stronger impact.
I don't think these interventions are subversive or imperialist: Mugabe is afraid of his shadow and has reached a stage where any discourse which remotely criticises him or his policies is dubbed subversive.

The only people we fear to be the victims of propaganda are people from rural areas. However ,they do not often have money to buy newspapers and Tv sets. We are just waiting for time. And i think that the victims of propaganda are people which are famoous, and well known in the world.
Famous