A Zambian judge dismissed on Sept. 25 the contempt charges against a major Zambian newspaper, which were filled as a result of a article written by a Cornell professor. The charges were initially filed on Aug. 31 after Prof. Muna Ndulo, law, penned a controversial article that was published in the Post-Zambia.

Lusaka High Court Judge Albert Wood dismissed the charges, citing a lack of foundation and a procedural error that occurred when the charges were filled.

“The facts from the record show that the alleged contempt, which is an article in a newspaper, was not committed in the face of the court,” Wood said upon making his decision. “The contempt proceedings before the Learned Chief Resident Magistrate cannot simply stand, I therefore quash all proceedings relating to the contempt proceedings in the court below.”

Prof. Ndulo’s column, entitled “The Chansa Kabwela Case: A Comedy of Errors,” was heavily critical of the government’s treatment of Post-Zambia editor Chansa Kabwela. Kabwela sent a number of graphic images of a breech birth that occurred as a result of a hospital strike in June to government officials. This medical complication, in which a baby exits the womb in a way other than head first, most likely would have been avoided with proper medical staffing, but in this case the child died. The government responded to this photographic criticism of the hospital strike by imprisoning Kabwela under pornography statutes.

“This case, more than anything else, demonstrates the hegemonic position occupied by the presidency in African politics and the weakness of state institutions that are supposed to provide checks and balances to the presidency,” Ndulo wrote in the Aug. 27 column.

The article was met with a swift response from Charles Kafunda, chief resident magistrate of Lusaka province, who summoned the entire editorial board on Aug. 31 to appear before the court for alleged contempt.

Although the case against the editorial board has been dropped, the proceedings against Kabwela are still ongoing. In prison since July 13, Kabwela faces up to five years in prison under the current statutes.

“If we are to truly liberate mankind from oppression, we have to take a global perspective to human rights and liberate mankind from totalitarian regimes where ever they maybe in the world,” Ndulo wrote in an email yesterday. “We must not be complacent but must continue to bring out the injustice of the trial of Chansa Chabwela until she is cleared.”