Editor,

RE: "Penal Code: What’s the best punishment for defamation?” (The New Times, December 9).

I would agree with Songa that defamation laws should first and foremost protect private individuals rather than those in public positions who must accept that greater scrutiny, even that which they consider scurrilous and unfair, is part and parcel of the price they accepted by agreeing to a public life.

I disagree that adopting laws criminalizing defamation will degrade our credibility. Similar or comparable laws exist all over the world, including in countries the writer and many kindred spirits would no doubt hold up as the epitome of freedom of expression and a very liberal press environment.

I would also take issue with the idea that, in enacting laws for our own need, Rwanda should give undue consideration to what outsiders, for whom the law is not being promulgated, might think of us.

Yes to the proposed law. No to it shielding public figures from necessary scrutiny, though they too are entitled to protection from malicious destruction of their reputations with the use of willfully false information.

MK