For five years Gail Hoad wrote articles about the recipients of The Gleaner's Silver Pen Award. Now she is on the other side of that pen.

Hoad worked as a reporter with The Gleaner between 1995 and 2000. During that time she penned "dozens" of articles about Silver Pen awardees.

But the pen has finally turned on Hoad, who is the latest winner of the award presented to the writer of the publication's letter of the month.

She described the shift from writing about Silver Pen winners to being written about as a winner as both strange and interesting.

"It is just interesting how the world turns - just never thought I would be writing letters to the editor," said Hoad, who received her journalism training from the University of Moscow in Russia.

Public declaration

She explained that some issues were worthy of a public declaration of one's views, and those who were able to do so should be the voice of those who were not.

The Knox College graduate received her award on Thursday at the newspaper's North Street office. Her missive, published on Saturday, February 14, 2009, was the chosen Letter of the Day.

The letter, titled 'Welcome move to protect our children', tackled the raging controversy spawned by the Broadcast Commission's ban of songs with explicit sexual content.

Hoad argued that the positions held by the commission and Esther Tyson, principal of Ardenne High School, "against the public airplay of particular songs is not an imposition of religious or moral views, but an attempt to protect and demonstrate concern for some of the most vulnerable in our nation - our young people".

On the contrary, she reasoned that it was "an attempt to ensure that the socialisation process of our young is one which tries to guarantee the best possible outcomes for the young people themselves and the wider society".

Hoad told The Gleaner that the continuing controversy surrounding the burning issue compelled her to express her views.

The trained journalist, who currently works for a non-profit organisation called Christian Aid, said she would have loved if her colleagues in the media took a personal responsibility to restrict the play of songs with explicit sexual lyrics. However, Hoad said the commission's move to ban such songs was necessary.

Hoad's letter also contended that common sense dictated that feeding children images of sadism, explicit sexual intercourse, sexual violence and sexual objectification can never give Jamaicans the type of society they want.

"This is common sense, but in these strange times, such a position is seen as an attack on freedom of speech and the sentiment of 'social hypocrites'," she wrote.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com