Enforce copyright laws — Boafo

THE Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture has entreated the Copyright Administration to strictly enforce the implementation of copyright laws to safeguard the work of artistes in the film and music industry.
The Minister, Mr Sampson K. Boafo, said the economic benefits of the film industry in particular was enormous, and as such, the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) should put in extra effort to protect the industry in its quest to promote Ghanaian culture.
He made the appeal when some members of the Akan Film Producers Association (AFPA) from Kumasi presented a petition to him in Accra.
AFPA petitioned the ministry to help in the establishment of a film fund to enable them educate and develop adequate human resource for the film industry in Ghana and also assist members of the industry to obtain visas and scholarships to undertake film production courses abroad to improve on their capacity.
Mr Boafo called on the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to go the extra mile to ensure that pirated Ghanaian films from other west African countries were not brought into the country, to enable producers reap the full benefit of their products.
He remarked that using Ghanaian languages for local movies was encouraging, and urged the film producers to adopt sub-titles for viewers who did not understand a particular language to have a fair understanding of the movie and also use Ghanaian music in film production.
Mr Boafo said among the reasons why most Ghanaians patronised Nigerian movies was that the Nigerian accent was always present in their movies, making the movie very natural and original as it also depicted their daily activities.
He noted that currently the Nigerian film industry earned more than their oil industry, stating that the film industry in Ghana also had a lot of potential, and encouraged the film producers to take the industry to another level by patronising film festivals in other countries.
According to him, his ministry had requested the various banks in the country, including Barclays Bank to support film producers with loan facilities to enable them improve on the quality of their films.
“I have also written to all the television stations in the country to portray Ghanaian culture to the rest of Africa through Ghanaian movies,” he stated and, urged Ghanaians to appreciate Ghanaian movies that depicted Ghanaian cultural heritage, since such movies were well appreciated in African communities in Europe.
He revealed that Parliament had approved a bill to institute the Cultural Awareness Month in November every year to showcase the country’s cultural diversity throughout that month.
Mr Boafo said several activities would be held during which special emphasis would be put on inculcating Ghanaian cultural heritage in Ghanaians through the schools, mosques, churches and other social institutions.
The Secretary of AFPA, Mr James Aboagye, entreated the ministry to encourage television stations to apportion 60 per cent of television content for local productions, instead of giving much attention to foreign movies.
He complained that television stations demanded money for airtime to air their movies and use those funds to pay for royalties to air foreign soap operas.
Among the aims of the association, he noted, were promotion of movies made in local dialects and promotion of peaceful co-existence of Ghana’s ethnic groups, to preserve and prevent the adulteration of the country’s culture and foster unity among stakeholders in the film industry.