ProNurse

In Zambia, families just don't talk about sex. Even today, Zambians would never discuss sex with children under 10. If sexual scenes show on TV, the set is either switched off or the parents simply leave the room without explanation.

But now a picture of childbirth, one that most of the nation has never seen, has the entire country talking about obscenity.

Last month, nurses and doctors went on a month-long strike, forcing one Zambian mother to give birth on the sidewalk outside the University Teaching Hospital, the country's biggest.

She gave birth without aid from doctors, and the newborn died.

Her traumatised family took a picture of the ill-fated childbirth, showing the infant's legs stretching out of the mother, struggling for life -- the hospital and potential medical help tantalisingly nearby but completely out of reach.

They emailed the photo to the country's only independent daily, the Post newspaper, in hopes it would be published to prevent more families from suffering the same tragedy.

News editor Chansa Kabwela got shivers looking at the picture, and decided the image was too graphic to publish.

But she forwarded the picture to the country's Vice President George Kunda and some women organsaitions, with a brief message urging them to work to end the strike.

Little did she realise that click of her mouse would lead to her arrest on charges on circulating pornography, punishable by five years in jail. The government felt that the image was obscene and that, by emailing it, Kabwela had distributed pornography.

Kabwela is out on bail of about 1,000 dollars. But her arrest has already had a chilling effect on local journalists. Now we don't know what constitutes an obscene image, or when a picture is considered to be "circulating".

The strike has already ended, but how will we cover the next one? And when the public turns to journalists for help with an issue of national importance, how can we respond?