Catherine Afeku, Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture
Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture, Catherine Afeku, has reassured players in the movie industry that a number of measures are being put in place by the ministry to improve the industry.
According to the minister, she is diligently working with stakeholders to ensure the passage of the Creative Arts Bill by parliament.
The passage of the bill will result in more exposure for both Ghanaian music and movies on local and international platforms to create more revenue for the industry players.
The minister also encouraged movie makers to improve their productions to compete favourably with movies from other parts of the world.
Madam Afeku stressed that audio visuals are a powerful communication tool and can positively project a nation’s image and enable a people tell their own story better.
She added that movies can also impact people to change their attitudes and focus them on patriotism.
The minister gave this reassurance in an interaction with some leaders of the Audio Visual Rights Society of Ghana (ARSOG) in Accra.
The stakeholder engagement was undertaken by the AG office to sensitise practitioners on copyright issues in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture.
The minister also announced that she is working with industry experts to put finishing touches on the documents for the film authority, which the film act mandated the ministry to establish.
The general consensus was that the movie industry needs to bring its input as a group for incorporation as well.
A follow-up meeting is scheduled for May 24 to update Madam Afeku on the outcomes of the ongoing deliberations.
In a related development, the Copyright administrator, Ms Yaa Atafuah, and the ARSOG board are working with the various groups of performers to encourage performers to join ARSOG to enable them to receive their royalties. Meanwhile, ARSOG is calling on stakeholders like television broadcasting houses, salons, hotels, restaurants, buses, among others, who use audio visual works to take their royalty payments seriously to prevent any drastic action from ARSOG.
The society has already filed over 400 suits against companies that have defaulted with their payments.
ARSOG was established in 2011 following the decision to have three separate collection management organisations to handle the music rights owners, movie rights owners and authors separately, with ARSOG catering for movie makers.