Court gavel
Photograph by: .

'I'm happy that the court has vindicated me'

Chansa Kabwela, 29, a news editor at Zambia's privately owned The Post newspaper, forwarded the photographs taken by the woman's husband of her giving birth to a breached baby outside Lusaka's University Teaching Hospital, to a senior government official.

The woman was turned away from the hospital in June because medics were on strike at the time. The baby did not survive.

The most graphic of the photos, according to a BBC report, showed the woman from the waist down, lying on a plastic sheet, with the bloodied torso of a baby between her thighs.

An angry President Rupiah Banda had declared the photographs pornographic.

Delivering a ruling in a court in the capital Lusaka, magistrate Charles Kafunda said the state failed to prove that the pictures were obscene by failing to prove they had the power to corrupt morals.

"The pictures fall outside the circumstances of determining obscenity. I have had recourse to the photos in question," Kafunda said.

Speaking after the ruling, an overjoyed Kabwela, flanked by her newspaper's editorial team, said she acted in good faith by distributing pictures in order to spread awareness of the effects of the strike.

"I'm happy that the court has vindicated me. This is a victory for the media," Kabwela said.

Kabwela's defence had questioned the definition of obscenity in Zambian law by asking witnesses to describe what they found arousing.

The pregnant woman was turned away from the hospital, despite being in labour and urgently requiring medical attention.

Bystanders tried to assist her, but the baby was dead on delivery.

The Post did not publish the photographs, but sent them to vice-president George Kunda and non-governmental organisations.

The state has not yet indicated whether it will appeal the ruling to the high court.

Since his election in October last year after the death of popular former leader Levy Mwanawasa, Banda has had a thorny relationship with the media, particularly The Post.

Banda accuses the group of plotting with the opposition to remove him from power by writing what he calls false reports about his government's performance.