Fred looks surprisingly like my hero, George.

Shocking news from Zambia that the Editor of the Post newspaper – one of the only independent papers that frequently has run ins with the government – has been sentenced to four months’ hard labour for contempt of court. Fred M’membe’s crime? To publish this opinion piece about the farcical nature of the attempted prosecution of one of his journalists, Chansa Kabwela, for obscenity.

Kabwela was taken to court for sending pictures of a woman giving birth in the street to senior government officials in order to highlight problems with the hospital system. It’s worth pointing out that she didn’t actually publish the pictures. The baby in the photos died.

Kabwela was, quite rightly, acquitted – and her case brought international attention to both the problems with maternal health in Zambia and the inability of her government to face up to the issue in a mature manner. Obscenity charges? Really?

This is a government which doesn’t like criticism, and unable to convict Kabwela, has instead gone after her editor. The timing of the editorial was, in hindsight, problably foolhardy and the letter of the letter of the law says it should have been printed after the trial was finished, not during precedings.  M’membe’s defence was largely based on the fact he was away on a study break at the time.

Every word is true, though, and the failure of the authorities to acknowledge their shameful performance in bringing the original charges by dropping those against M’membe is an outrage.

The judge hoped the sentence should ‘reform the convict’. I sincerely hope it doesn’t.

–update

In brighter news about Zambia, LearnAsOne‘s ‘London Bridges’ sponsored walk took place today and raised loads of cash for Saviour’s school. Congratulations to all involved!

Chansa Kabwela. Sorry about the branding, pics are hard to come by.

A Zambian journalist, Chansa Kabwela, is being tried on pornography charges because she sent government ministers photographs of women being forced to give birth in the streets because of hospital closures and strikes.

The prosecution has already started flailing, accusing Kabwela’s employer, The Post, of contempt of court because it published an opinion piece by Reporters without Borders.

Utterly ridiculous, but this case is an important test of how progressive Zambia’s government is, and how independent of government and church the judiciacy can be. The government has already failed in its basic handling of the affair, and its down to the judiciary now to protect freedom of speech from government interference – it’s an opportunity to set an historic precedent that shouldn’t be missed.

It’s appalling, absolutely appalling, that the Post has already been reduced to running a statement which says the photos were ‘in bad taste’. The only thing in bad taste about the photos is that the circumstances in which they could be taken were allowed to come about in the first place.

Kabwela faces a five year sentence if convicted. There’s an online petition here which will no doubt make no difference, but at least raise the profile of a shocking case that’s been mostly overlooked so far by the mainstream media. Ironically, for a case about photography, there aren’t even any pictures of Kabwela on the web barring the one above from the (Government owned) Times. Today’s story from the Post is here. ]]> http://www.adamoxford.co.uk/2009/08/chansa-kabwelas-case-kicks-off/feed/ 0