HARARE, Zimbabwe: President Robert Mugabe has approved a law that will give the government sweeping powers to monitor the Internet and mobile and fixed telephones in a country where the independent press has been gagged.
The official Herald newspaper said Saturday that the Interception of Communications Act would allow the government to “sift for information it deems subversive or used for organized crime.”
The law allows “certain communications to be intercepted or monitored in the course of their transmission through telecommunications or the postal service and sets up a monitoring and interception center,” it said.
This means that Zimbabwe’s computer and its telephone will be bugged. But it’s not going to be cheap: It’s estimated that the ZimPATRIOT Act will cost Zim$10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (US$22.62) per year to enforce.
