JOHANNESBURG — A Zambian newspaper editor charged with distributing pornography for sending photographs to officials of a woman forced to give birth on the street during a hospital strike has been acquitted by a court in Lusaka, the capital.
Chief Magistrate Charles Kafunda ruled Monday that there was no evidence the photos were obscene or likely to corrupt public morals.
Chansa Kabwela, editor at the independent newspaper The Post, decided the photos of the woman and her stillborn child were too shocking to publish but sent them to senior government officials and two women’s groups to draw attention to the hospital crisis. She was arrested and charged with circulating pornography after President Rupiah Banda publicly urged police to take action.
She could have faced up to five years in prison if convicted.
