The trial of a leading Zambian journalist charged with circulating obscene material after distributing photographs of a woman outside a hospital giving birth unaided while medical staff were on strike was due to get under way in Lusaka on Wednesday.
Chansa Kabwela (29), a news editor at the private The Post newspapers, distributed the photos of the woman giving birth in the car park outside Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital in June. The baby did not survive the birth.
Kabwela has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry a minimum sentence of five years.
Doctors and nurses at public hospitals in the Southern African country striked for the month of June over pay.
The pregnant woman was turned away from the hospital, despite being in labour and urgently requiring medical attention because the baby was breached. Bystanders tried to assist her but the baby was dead on delivery.
The photographs were taken by the woman’s husband.
The Post did not publish the photographs but sent them to vice-president George Kunda and NGOs.
The Zambian chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) has accused government of violating press freedoms over the affair.
Since his election in October last year after the death of popular former leader Levy Mwanawasa, President Rupiah Banda has had a thorny relationship with the media, particularly The Post.
Banda accuses the group of plotting with the political opposition to remove him from power by writing what he calls false reports about his government’s performance.
Media groups have announced a protest march on Friday over the government’s treatment of the media.
The action follows the beating last week by members of the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) of three journalists, one from The Post and two from the state-owned Times of Zambia, as they were trying to report on Banda’s return from a trip to Uganda. — Sapa-dpa