The Editor, Sir:

The following is an open letter to Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sport, Olivia 'Babsy' Grange.

Dear Prime Minister Golding and Minister Grange:

As the country continues to grapple with the issue of declining principles and the factors that are eroding morality, standards and values, please take this letter as a means of sharing with you and the society some thoughts which you are urged to reflect on at this time.

The recent ban by the Broadcasting Commission of certain types of music on radio and television is doomed to fail if this is not supported by significant and sustained action to tackle several crude, lewd and vulgar actions in the society. As a media practitioner, I have given public support to the commission for drawing a line on so-called daggerin' music.

I have heard some of the comparisons made with calypso music and see where the Commission has drawn a further line (but not as clearly). Drawing these lines will come to naught, however, without further steps by other entities which you direct and influence.

As broadcasters, we have committed to working to achieve significant improvements in the quality of material aired on radio and television. One can agree that local television today presents more wholesome, edifying and exciting local content for children and adolescents than ever before.

On the other hand, foreign television has given us different material, different cultural exposure and has changed values because of the content to which some young people have been exposed.

Pay attention to content

That Genie is out of the bottle but tackling that is as much a paramount challenge for policymakers and regulators alike.

To ask national broadcasters to pay attention to our content and not concern ourselves with other areas of looseness and breach would be unacceptable. We must act together if we are going to achieve change.

We must confront the fact that radio is not the medium of choice for young people who have a defective moral compass. Poll them and see how many of them receive their content from radio. Their influences are far more direct and far more intoxicating. In addition, what appeals to them has been made more compelling than what is on our radio stations and most of our local television channels (and bear in mind I am not here defending radio content being lewd but saying as we clean up radio, this is only surface stuff).

How will we tackle the growing phenomenon of what hear are 'no-panty days' at some schools - where groups of girls do not wear undergarments on certain days? What will we do about this being combined with the rampant pornography (local and foreign) days on public transportation?

Cleansing the broadcast media of Rampin' Shop but allowing 'Rampin Shops', on wheels throughout our towns and cities is a travesty and is failing in our responsibility to our children and young people; and a disrespect to decent adults. It is a bigger problem that music bans can fix. Law enforcement must be employed to give support to the media clean-up. Suspending or revoking licences will achieve nothing without companion measures outside media.

Vigilance must also be increased in public areas where youngsters are congregated. Visit the Half-Way Tree bus terminal or any of the areas around it where people await transportation by the hundreds; visit those at Papine, Cross Roads, downtown Kingston, May Pen, Mandeville, etc. and check how many of them are playing music from radio stations. I submit that my recent checks proved that there were precious few!

Real possibility

We know that holders of broadcast licences to utilise the public's airwaves have a responsibility for the material shared with the public. We see the present environment as one in which much progress is being made in this regard. However, there is a real possibility that if we regulate broadcast media strongly and tightly, but fail to simultaneously address the other areas of potent influence on listeners and viewers, it is broadcast media that will be relegated to being out-of-date and out-of-step with what's happening around us. Then, faced by the inevitable failure to have the desired impact, we could also see even deeper regulation of broadcast media, while the real potent sources of influence remain happily daggerin' away at the moral fabric of the society.

I am, etc.,

Gary Allen