The "Dagger" , freedoom of the press and Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica

Several weeks ago I was on the UWI bus from Portmore to campus, listening to my usual fare of love songs as chosen by the driver, when one girl responding Anita Baker's "Giving you the best that I got" sighed and said they do not make songs like that anymore - I laughed.

The girl and her friend eyed me suspiciously. What was so funny their eyes said and I responded, "No they don't they make songs like that anymore," I said. "They make 'Daggerin'". That was when the conversation really took off. The two ladies chimed in they were happy that it was banned by the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica(BCJ) and were pleased that the latest hit Vybz Kartel and Spice's "Rompin Shop", for which the duo earned an EMA award, was also on the chopping block.

The announcement of the ban was reported on in The Star on (February 07, 2008). The article titled "Daggerin songs banned" stated that the BCJ had put a ban on the playing of "daggerin" songs and songs that require "bleeping" on all radio and television stations, including local cable channels "with immediate effect."

In a release which described the state of the Jamaican music industry as rife with a "a deluge of inappropriate content on the airwaves," the BCJ widened its scope of the use of "inappropriate" content to include, "any recording, live song or music video, which promotes the act of "daggering", or which makes reference to, or is otherwise suggestive of " daggering" and makes it clear that operators who do not comply will be dealt with accordingly.

I will tell you honestly. While the beat of songs such as Daggerin an Romping Shop do not really bother me - because of their catchy nature - the words, especially Romping Shop lyrics does. But even so, perhaps because I am doing a course in Media and Ethics and we are concentrating on rights and freedoms such as freedom of expression, from the moment I read this article I could see the storm a brewing.

And in indeed it has begun.

I have found myself either in conversations about the banned songs or freedom of expression or have been privy to conversations on the topics.

Here are some of the comments: (I have chosen not to identify the persons)

1. "I do not know what is the big deal because every year dem broadcast carnival live on tv"

2. "There is nothing wrong with our music. It is wrong with our censorship. I should not be going to a stage show and seeing a child at the front early in the morning."

3. I remember when I was young I would have to steal and listen to Yellow Man and Athony B and years later...these (Daggerin) songs on the radio."

4. "At this rate nothing can't play pon radio"

The above comments were taken from conversations I either participated in or was a party to. What are you views?