First, at Kubatana we’ve worked hard to provide a platform for broad civic, political and public comment – we don’t censor or edit submissions. And we haven’t had cause to “ban” any submission on the grounds of hate speech, or anything like that. So I’m pleased that Dumi sees us as being objective.

We actually publish on behalf of civil society and we don’t editorialise. We’ve noted that the most energetic publishers of information within civil society in Zimbabwe are the human rights/media and legal NGOs.

We’ve run a lot of email/internet training workshops and over the years as the cost of living has increased many of the young Zimbabweans who come to us for training have cited that lack of funds are stopping them from communicating via the Internet. Perhaps the debate of the “elite” using the Internet can be seen in the context of access to resources. Whilst we’ve seen an increase in the number of internet cafes the majority of urban Zimbabweans either don’t have the funds to use the internet cafes, or the skills. I agree with Dumi – when I do the rounds of internet cafes in Harare they are buzzing! However this is not an indication that this technology is used by many people relatively,in Zimbabwe.

I believe that the government of Zimbabwe is far more threatened by mass print media than the internet hence the awful absence of a variety of homegrown “zines” and papers on the street. I would certainly like to see this change. I’ve always felt that if we enhance Kubatana.net by compiling a monthly newsletter containing articles/reports/pictures etc from our web site and distributing it in High Density Areas then we would be far less tolerated by the ruling party. Maybe we need the courage to take this step!

I think that we must also broaden the debate on expression under repression – it’s not just about critics of the government being able to speak their mind. It’s about the rights of gays and lesbians, or the rights of those who wish to wear dreadlocks, or mini skirts, its about the rights of women who should be able to move freely at night in Zimbabwe but can’t for fear of assault, or arrest for being branded a commercial sex worker, its about the rights of people to not belong to the MDC or the ruling party.

The list is endless.

if you read the independent press here [and yes, there is a lot of indepent newspapers in the country, contrary to the popular line that they have all been shut down by the government] you will see that people write and say almost what they like. there are strict publishing rules, but that’s the same world wide. and i think there’s a different media culture in general. but whatever “repression” is there, in my understanding, isn’t [only] out of simplistic, power gathering intentions, but has a base in nationalistic, revolutionary ideologies that sometimes are at odds with the ‘standards of democracy’ that the western ‘judges’ and ‘leaders’ of this world like to think are the only standards. that notion can be contested.

so if we are to have more media freedoms in zimbabwe, and other so-called repressed countries, i don’t think that head on collisions with the powers that be are what will open up the spaces for debate and dialogue. after all, the more you fight against a noose, the tighter it gets. so to ‘free’ yourself, you have to try strategies that work favoroubly against the ‘repressive noose’ …

from what i understand about Kubatana, it does criticize the government, but not from a ridiculous, irrational hatred of the government. i think that’s part of why they remaind largely unbothered. i think it’s too simple to say it’s because they don’t affect the mainstream. come to bulawayo for example, and see how many people use the internet and email. more than you think! at internet cafes, work places, universities… people are connected — no stats to share — but from observations. kubatana is critical of government but i think also constructive. people like SW Radio have a more extreme anti-government line. so whilst i don’t agree with government banning them, when you look at the bigger picture you can understand it.

it doesn’t serve us as zimbabweans for people to also paint our country as some hell on earth. it has its problems, and its spaces of opportunity.