Holness reacts to Hanna’s remarks on Vybz Kartel music ban

Following the Opposition spokesperson and former Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna, on radio about banning Vybz Kartel’s music and him recording from his prison cell, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has reacted saying his Government will notr censor dancehall music.

“My point is, how do we create consumers who are more discerning of the products that are being produced. Because, once you start to censure you kill creativity,” Holness said.

“We have a liberal democracy’, we can’t escape that. And the society is not one that brooks any argument about censorship. We are not a society that holds heavily to censorship.

“In other societies, you go and you watch the movies and it is not just dancehall, it’s just general. You have hip hop, you have rap music; we are just bombarded with things that have different moral perspectives. But, if you have a well-educated society that can place these things in context,and say this is art, this is from one’s own belief, it’s not what I necessarily believe, or I know that what this person is saying is wrong, then your society can survive that.

Hanna, who was addressing issues of violence and culture at the time on local radio station, Nationwide News Network, noted that, despite being sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, Kartel seemed to have continued recording his music, which some Jamaicans consider unfit for public consumption, from behind bars, which music is played publicly

“If you are convicted, until you are not convicted, perhaps it is that your music need not be played on the radio,” Hanna said in the interview.

“The issue is where Kartel’s music is coming out (more) than any other person, because I have not heard any new song from Buju (Banton) since he has been incarcerated. I think that we need to get to the root cause of that. We need to find out how the songs are being made, how they are getting out. Is there corruption in the prison system? And not only for Kartel, I am not singling out Kartel alone. I am singling out all persons across the spectrum who are having an imprint on our children’s value system,” she said.

Listen clip below:

Read more in the Sunday Observer.

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