Broadcasting Commission seeks volunteers to monitor media

Saturday, November 07, 2009 9:51 PM

News

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

THE Broadcasting Commission is on a drive to draft volunteers from around the country to make up a citizen-based monitoring programme which it hopes will extend its reach as a regulatory body for the broadcast media.

"We now do internal monitoring which, as you would imagine, would be limited because it's just not practical for this regulator or any in the world to cover 24 hours of broadcasting," Cordel Green, the commission's executive director told the Observer yesterday.

"What we want now is to strengthen the proactive management by getting a set of citizens committed not just to listen from time to time and if you happen to hear something you report it to the Broadcasting Commission, but in a very structured, scheduled way and this will help us also to cover some of the stations that are not within the reach of the regulator [such as] regional and limited-area stations," he added.

GREEN... regulation has to be less about inoculation and more about empowerment of the viewer. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

The initiative, which is expected to be up and running by the end of March, comes in the wake of public debate sparked by the commission's move just over a week ago to ban from the airwaves certain dancehall songs it said were offensive.

While it has been applauded by several sections of society, the regulatory body has also faced criticism that it was being hypocritical by not banning soca or calypso songs which characteristically use double entendres to couch lyrics of a sexual nature. It has also been criticised that the ban will not prevent children from hearing offensive material given the proliferation of street dances and music on buses. But the body has defended its move by saying that it has to start somewhere and it has called on other sectors to do their part in supporting its efforts.

"We already have put together a list based on people who have responded to the Broadcasting Commission's public comments, people who have written letters to the editors of newspapers and people who have written to us," said Green.
"There is a supplement to be published in the papers during the course of next week and they will also call for volunteers."

In addition, Green said the commission was engaged with a number of organisations that have membership across the country. To prepare them for the job, all the volunteers will go through an orientation to "sharpen the skills they bring when they listen to radio and to television".

Green divulged the plans yesterday during a meeting with the Observer's editors and reporters where he sought to present the commission's position on regulating free-to-air content.

"The problem I have is not just with the content but with the impact of the electronic media because with impact you can normalise behaviour," he said. "There needs to be a confluence of influences to demand the proper socialisation of our children in his country."

He added: "We have always been aware of the need to be pragmatic. We know that technology now facilitates a new form of elitism where just about anybody has the means to be heard and seen."

In light of that, Green stressed the need for a new intelligence to instruct children on how to safely traverse the information highway.

"It's bad enough that they go to YouTube. It's bad enough that they go to sessions - or they don't even have to go, they just live in areas where a man can just string up a box and play anything. But when they turn on the radio and some problematic content is blaring there, it normalises what is offensive."

Green said the commission didn't want to risk regulatory overreach but was moving to make its regulations more effective.

"Regulation has to be less about inoculation and more about empowerment of the viewer," he said.

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