Zimbabwe express their views: they make totally different statements on one and the same issue depending on whether they are in private and in public. Even the supposedly private spheres are affected. Children cannot talk freely with their parents or adults, and women can also not freely express themselves to their husbands. Health issues have not been spared, as there is a lot of stigma associated with talking freely on certain issues, especially HIV/AIDS. People do not dare to express themselves when it comes to the pandemic, for example, on revealing their own HIV positive or negative status. The President, R.G Mugabe, proclaimed during the funeral of the leader of the “war veterans”, Chenjerai Hunzvi, that Hunzvi had not died of AIDS as “good people do not die of AIDS”. The newspapers had revealed drugs and prescriptions suggesting that Hunzvi was being treated for an AIDS related illness. The fear factor is always there – and it is increasing, particularly in the public sphere. Government is determined, to the point of obsession, to increasingly control what people say and do. Private schools are controlled. Operation Murambatsvina (the forced removal of people in the cities considered as causing “dirt”) denied people their economic freedom of expression. If Zimbabweans say something outside the country presumed to be critical of government, the net could be closing in on them and their passport may be seized. Most people exercise caution before speaking their mind in Zimbabwe. In the Afro Barometer that researches opinions and attitudes of people in 18 countries, Zimbabwe always comes out the worst. Up to 35 % of the respondents say “don’t know”, to what they perceive to be politically sensitive questions i.e. give non-committal responses since they do not dare to give clear answers. Even at tertiary level, traditionally the hotbed of free debate, the 6 African Media Barometer - Zimbabwe 2006