Corporate Jamaica Urged not to Back Explicit Sexual and Violent Content

Executive Director of the Broadcasting Commission, Cordell Green, has urged the corporate community to refrain from investing in that which “keeps Jamaica entrenched in a state of decadence.”
“I say to our business leaders, do not allow the pursuit of profit and the imperatives of marketing to cause you to support a vortex of unbridled sex, violence and profanity on the public airwaves,” he stated at the Kiwanis Club of North St. Andrew’s monthly meeting held yesterday (March 12) at the Police Officers Club in Kingston.
“Companies that associate themselves with the purveyors of violent and sexually explicit content are no more decent than the thug on the street corner peddling pornography and drugs to our children. It is short-sighted to profit from the blood and the destroyed lives of our people,” he stated, urging that they support song writers, singers and DJs, who create fit and proper content for the airwaves and show enlightened leadership in their industry.
Mr. Green told the meeting that the Commission would not relent in its efforts to rid the nation’s airwaves of violent and explicitly sexual content especially as Jamaica is on the cusp of a cultural revolution.
“There will be no retreat,” he said to rapturous applause. “We are not going back to the airwaves being used to normalise crudity. Jamaican children must remember 2009. as the year Jamaicans started to take Jamaica back from thuggery and crudity, beginning with the airwaves,” he stated.
Mr. Green said that the Commission has no vendetta against any industry, genre of music or class of people, but must address the crudity and violence that have permeated the entire country, aided and abetted by radio, television, ring tones for mobile phones, stage shows, sound systems and public transportation generally.
“Broadcast regulations must play a critical role, but . consumers, parents, producers, songwriters need to get involved and opinion leaders such as the [Kiwanis Club] must be heard,” he pointed out.
In the meantime, the Executive Director informed that the Commission has asked the government to amend the Broadcasting and Radio Re-Diffusion Act to give the body the authority to apply financial sanctions ranging from $250,000 to $1,000,000 for breaches, and for an Appeals Tribunal to be established.
The Commission is also recommending that the legislation be overhauled to expand the scope of its powers to deal with a wider range of broadcast technologies such as video boards and mobile television as well as other pressing issues.
“Regulations are on their way to Parliament covering a range of issues, including how we treat the survivors of trauma in newscast, use of drugs, misuse of alcohol, compilation of music charts, play lists and programme logs,” he disclosed.