Dear Editor,

Like most Jamaicans I have been preoccupied with the poor state of our economy, wondering nervously what the future holds for us. However, I could not believe what I saw in the Observer of January 7.

It was not a story about how the economy will turn around and that there will be jobs, jobs and more jobs. To my disbelief, it was a nude photo of a voluptuous woman in a sexy pose prominently displayed. Interestingly, on the same spread there were pictures of former prime ministers, Edward Seaga and Michael Manley.

When did we get to this stage of slackness and vulgarity? The issue of lewdness and violence in our music is always being presented by the media as a matter of great concern and as something bad for the national interest. The media and many reasonable bystanders attack the slackness and vulgarity of our dancehall artistes, many of whom have not completed secondary level education and cannot be looked to as the paragons of virtue or reasoning.

We often launch a similar spate of attacks on bus drivers, many of whom are also under-educated, who allow school children to indulge in slackness on their buses. It smacks of hypocrisy for us to attack the uneducated for their lack of good sense and reason while we ignore or condone the media’s publication of its own version of lewdness and nudity. This is being done on the heels of the Broadcasting Commission issuing directives intended to sensitise us to the fact that sexually explicit content is not appropriate for the public media.

One would think that a national newspaper would subject itself to some ethical principles of journalism. I am not aware of the rules and regulations governing print media. However, I do know that what I saw did not look acceptable.

Kemmehi Lozer

Kingston 19

k_lozer@yahoo.com