Akuapem Poloo
Ghanaian actress Rosemond Alade Brown, popularly known as Akuapem Poloo, has eulogised the government’s decision to ban foreign telenovelas on Ghanaian television screens.
According to the controversial actress in an interview with BEATWAVES, she said the move by the government to ban foreign telenovelas in the country was a laudable initiative that would save the already dead movie industry.
“I was so happy when I heard the government has given the directives on the ban of telenovelas on our television screens. This will go a long way to save the industry which is almost dead for years now,” she said.
Akuapem Poloo recounted how most stations in the country ended up copying soap operas or telenovelas blindly from India, Mexico, and Brazil, notable among the movies were ‘Kumkum Bhagya’, ‘Veera’, and ‘Simply Maria’ and a host of others to the neglect of Ghanaian movies.
“I remember back in the days, educational, entertaining and informative programmes were the source of education and inspiration to young people at the time. These programmes instilled values, patriotism and a sense of belonging to people but now these telenovelas have exposed kids to immorality at a tender age because most of the telenovelas are romantic, and with adult content,” she indicated.
She added, “With the new reforms by the National Film Authority, TV shows that portray the culture of the country will serve as a great medium to building and strengthening national identity.”
The Ghana National Film Authority has issued a public announcement that suggests that telenovelas would not be showing on our screens from May 1, 2021.
In the press statement sighted by DGN ONLINE, the National Film Authority would now scrutinise and classify all contents before they are shown on TV.
By this, all TV shows that do not conform to the social-cultural, national aspirations and moral standards of Ghana shall be rejected. It means all telenovelas would be stopped. Such audiovisual content includes feature films, short films, TV series, documentaries, advertisements, music videos, and some selected TV programmes.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke