The Broadcasting Commission has issued a directive requiring broadcasters to immediately stop airing any audio or video which promotes scamming, abuse of drugs, illegal or harmful use of guns or any form of criminal activity.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Commission said this includes live editing and original edits (eg edits by producer/label) as well as the use of near-sounding words as substitutes for offensive lyrics, expletives, or profanities.

The Commission says the Directive reinforces their commitment to keeping the airwaves free of harmful content given the important role traditional media still play as agents of socialisation.

“The use of the public airwaves to broadcast songs that promote/glorify illegal activity could give the wrong impression that criminality is an accepted feature of Jamaican culture and society. It could also unwittingly lend support to moral disengagement and further normalise criminality among vulnerable and impressionable youth, and the young adult demographic,” the release read.

Executive Director of the Commission, Cordel Green, said this directive was the end product of a wide-ranging process that included focused monitoring, decoding of subculture dialect and urban slangs, deliberations on balancing free expression vis-à-vis protection from harm, and consultations with Industry

“Part of the difficulty in dealing with music, especially that which emerges from a subculture, is that it takes time to identify, understand and verify the slangs and colloquial language used.”

He added: “Understandably, new street lingua may take some time before they are normalised, or their meanings become well entrenched. The Commission also has to be circumspect in its actions, knowing that regulatory attention can have the unintended consequence of giving exposure to and popularising subcultural phenomenon.”

Green noted that while content regulation must always have regard for the right to freedom of expression, any context in which criminality is presented through music or videos as normal behaviour, “conflicts with the tenets of responsible broadcasting.”

The Commission has also moved to assure the public that it will continue to exert all powers within its regulatory remit to protect the most vulnerable (children and impressionable and unattached youth) from harmful media content.