Activism or Pornography? That is the question that one newspaper editor now faces as in Zambia, photos of childbirth spark controversy. The editor has been charged with circulating pornography, and now may faces up to five years in prison if she is convicted. The case has sparked controversy on a global scale, after it emerged when the editor sent the now controversial photos of a woman delivering a stillborn child outside a hospital to government officials in an attempt to bring light to the growing health care crisis. Chansa Kabwela, sent three photos in all in which, a woman, who was photographed by her husband, was delivering a child feet first. The woman who's child was stillborn after she was turned away from two clinics. So where the photos porn or where they an attempt to highlight the countries growing healthcare crisis, which has left hospitals and medical facilities greatly understaffed after a prolonged nurses’ strike? Most believe that the extreme reaction is nothing less than political retaliation for the papers stories, which have continually criticized the government’s handling of the health crisis.
The case once again brings to light the struggle that is so often seen in International development and aid work, as well as in regards to a free and fair press, when both reporting and tending to those who are caught in the middle of the red tape. It must be clearly noted that the editor refused to publish the photos, but sent them to authorities in an attempt to incite action on the part of various agencies. The obvious over reaction, only proves the governments inablity to bring an end to this crisis, and is not only retaliation but an attempt to shift the focus off the true cause and victims.
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