MWeb 'will obey the law'

2004-06-02 11:28

Tricia Shannon

Cape Town - MWeb said on Tuesday that it will block or divulge the source of its customers' e-mail messages if required, by the Zimbabwean authorities.

The government in Zimbabwe has proposed new contracts for all internet service providers (ISPs) that will force them to block content or report "malicious messages".

AFP reported on Tuesday that an official at one ISP raised questions as to whether the contract was legal and also said it would be "practically impossible to monitor and check on all e-mails communicated through our network".

News24 asked MWeb, which is the largest of about seven or eight ISPs in Zimbabwe, how the new law would affect its operations in the country.

Mike Ehret, General Manager of MWeb Zimbabwe, explained that MWeb has, through its membership in the Zimbabwe Internet Service Provider Association (Zispa), asked the Zimbabwean regulator for the industry for clarity and comment. According to Ehret, MWeb will participate in the discussions between the regulator and the ISP association.

The proposed contract, which was seen by AFP, requires that all ISPs must ensure that "objectionable, obscene, unauthorised or any other content, message or communications infringing copyright, intellectual property right and international and domestic cyber laws... inconsistent with the laws of Zimbabwe are not carried in his network".

The contract also obliges ISPs to "provide, without delay, all the tracing facilities of the nuisance or malicious messages or communications transported through his equipment and network, to authorised officers of... the government of Zimbabwe, when such information is required for investigations of crimes or in the interests of national security".

Highly-regulated environments

MWeb Africa's general manager, Harry Aucamp said, "MWeb is used to operating in highly-regulated environments. For MWeb the privacy of their subscribers is paramount. We believe in respecting the privacy of our subscribers and the release of subscriber information will only be made available under lawful compulsion."

Concludes Aucamp, "We are in the business of providing internet services and are obligated to act within the provisions of the laws of the specific countries in sub-Saharan Africa we operate in."

In December President Robert Mugabe vowed his country would control the means to get information to its citizens, and emphasised Zimbabwe's sovereignty.

But in March, the Supreme Court outlawed as unconstitutional legal provisions that gave the president powers to eavesdrop or intercept e-mails or telephone conversation.

- News24