The Power of Parliament to Commit Persons for Contempt in Zambia

Abstract

The applicants were respectively the managing director and editor of the Post newspaper. They published a series of articles in the newspaper in which they criticized the Speaker and the Vice-President for critical comments made about judges of the Supreme Court. Without any form of trial, they were adjudged guilty of gross contempt of the National Assembly and of a breach of parliamentary privilege by the Standing Orders Committee and committed to prison for an indefinite period. They applied to the High Court for a writ of habeas corpus.