Media practitioners have called for greater professionalism among journalists, rebuking those they say use social media to spread rumours and unverified information.

The call was made on May 3 as Rwanda marked the World Press Freedom Day.

The discussions during the celebration focused on the role of freedom of expression in promoting accountable governance, addressing the digital challenges to freedom of expression and fighting cybercrimes, media viability in digital times and threats to public trust.

Other topics included digital communications for increased freedom of press, tracking abuse in the digital communications as well as responses to online violence and sexual harassment against women journalists.

Christian Tuyishime, in charge of media regulation at Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) said the digital era has brought both benefits and challenges in journalism including quack journalism.

Journalists interview Green Party president Frank Habineza during previous elections. Sam Ngendahimana. 

"The technology has transformed the way journalism is done and the way of collecting and disseminating information to audiences in the digital era. However, there is an issue of quack journalists and journalists lacking ethics which requires joint efforts and regulation,” he said. 

He reiterated the role of critical thinking in journalism profession.

"There are people who pretend to do journalism yet they are not trained for it. There is a need for cracking down on such people who confuse the society. They should be discouraged. We should be able to identify those who are doing professional journalism, and quack journalism,” he said. 

He also made the case for specialization in the journalism profession.

Thierry Murangira, RIB spokesperson said "Journalists should do professional journalism to differentiate themselves from quack journalists. Quack journalists are tarnishing the image of professional journalists,”

"Some journalists are losing professionalism in the digital era. They are looking at generating many views instead of producing relevant stories,” said Rushingabigwi Jean Bosco, the Head of Department of the Media Sector Coordination Monitoring Department at Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) .

Sexual harassment in the media

Egidie Bibio, the chairperson of Rwanda Female Journalists Association (ARFEM), said that sexual harassment should be eliminated in the media industry.

Sexual harassment, she said, can affect the performance of female journalists.

World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Women in News conducted research in 20 countries across the world on sexual harassment in newsrooms and the report indicates that 80 percent of sexual harassment goes unreported. 

The data from a global study released on January 26 shows that on average, 40 percent of women media professionals have experienced verbal or physical sexual harassment in the workplace. 

However, only 20 percent of that number choose to report such cases while others remain silent