Chansa Kabwela Porn Trial in Zambia Will Reconvene on Aug.28

The IWMF (International Women’s Media Foundation) has urged the Zambian government to drop charges against Chansa Kabwela, news editor for The Post, who is facing charges of circulating obscene materials.

Chansa Kabwela, news editor for the Zambian Post faces changes of circulating obscenity materials, for sending photos of dead baby of govt officials during nurses strike.Chansa Kabwela sent two photographs of a woman giving birth without medical care to the country’s vice-president, health minister and rights groups. Her newspaper The Post didn’t publish the photos.

The pictures are graphic and show the baby being born in the breech position, on the ground of Lusaka’s main hospital, where nurses were on strike. The woman had also been turned away from two clinics, and the baby died.

As the BBC explains, pornography is illegal in Zambia, and Kabwela now faces five years in prison, if it’s determined that the photos of the woman and her dying baby are “arousing”, presumably to men.

The defence is arguing that in order to call the photos arousing, witnesses must define “arousal” and then say if they were “aroused” sexually upon opening the envelope containing the photos. Others who saw the photos will also be called to testify.

Vice-President Kunda’s senior private secretary Kenneth Ngosa told the court on Aug. 5 that though the pictures of a woman giving birth outside UTH depicted a desperate situation, they did not arouse both himself and the Vice-President.

On Aug. 6 Chansa appeared in court where another state witness Health minister Kapembwa Simbao’s personal secretary Clare Kalunga told the court that the pictures of the woman in labour did not qualify to be pornography. Secretary to Cabinet Dr. Joshua Kanganja’s secretary Nawina Hagwagwa told the court that it was not wrong for Chansa to bring the problem to the attention of the authorities. 

Chansa Kabwela’s case will resume on Aug. 28, 2009. For a sequential series of information bits posted about the case on Zambia’s The Post newspaper, follow the link.