Editor,I wish to respond to the article, “Where are the ‘big fish’? MPs ask Ombudsman” (The New Times, November 15).Instead of challenging the Ombudsman to make public the names of leaders involved in corruption-related vices to (as the MPs want), send a strong message to those who may be tempted to abuse public funds.Parliament should be doing its job to tighten the law to make embezzlement the felony that it should be. Until they have done so, asking others to do their job is a dereliction of their duty to the Rwandan public. It is also important that, until someone has been properly convicted in a court of law, they should be protected against undue defamation.It is important to strike a balance between the need to check misuse of public resources and the protection of individuals who might be wrongly accused and convicted in the court of public opinion when, in fact, little real and actionable evidence of wrong-doing exists.That’s actually why I am one of those who do not support the media’s campaign to have the Rwandan law which criminalises defamation repealed. While I understand the need for a legal framework that allows the media to play an effective role as our watchdog, it is necessary for individuals not to be defamed or libeled through false attacks on their characters or reputations. Libeling people exposes or subjects them to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or disgrace, and causes them to be shunned or avoided, and can injure their professional reputations and the ability to remain in their occupations.No one should have the right to libel or to slander others with impunity and that is why I find the media’s campaign to relax the standards against such practices not in accordance with the public’s interest. Members of the public will, in the end, be the victims of the many unethical muckraking denizens of our media fraternity. Until I see that the media have adopted and are seriously enforcing professional ethical standards of behaviour in how they protect people’s reputations from unfair attacks by pseudo-journalists, I would prefer that the laws criminalising such unfounded attacks on people’s reputation be retained.Mwene Kalinda, Kigali
