Ghana Has Always Been Notorious For Pirating Creative Works – Juliet Ibrahim

Ghollywood actress, Juliet Ibrahim has come out to express her total support for Nollywood actresses, Omoni Oboli and Bimbo Ademoye, who recently blasted Ghanaian TV stations for airing their movies without their consent. She recently had her say via her Instagram page, and fans have been reacting.

According to her, it is sad to see how several TV stations operating in Ghana have decided to be notorious for violating all kinds of copyright, especially stations like Pemsan TV, who have regularly pirated movies she uploaded to her official YouTube channel, Juliet Ibrahim Studios.

Juliet then called out the National Communications Authority (NCA), Ghana Copyright Office, Ghana Police Service, National Film Authority, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and the Ghana Media Commission to take immediate action to address the situation, else, the erring companies will keep giving Ghana a bad name.

Her words, “This isn’t just happening to me. I stand in full support of my Nigerian colleagues, Omoni Oboli and Bimbo Ademoye, who are also speaking up against the piracy of their creative works.

We need robust action, regulation, and enforcement to protect content creators and restore the dignity of our film industry. This behavior brings disgrace not only to the perpetrators but also to the nation of Ghana as a whole, which should be a beacon of excellence in arts and culture. Africa’s creative economy deserves respect.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.