On Monday, April 28, 2025, renowned entertainment journalist Francis Doku took to Facebook to clarify key legal and regulatory misunderstandings surrounding a recent warning issued by the Ghana National Film Authority (NFA) to television stations accused of airing copyrighted content without authorization.
The NFA, in a statement signed by its Executive Secretary Kafui Danku-Pitcher, expressed concern over increasing copyright violations, particularly the unauthorized broadcasting of creative works, including those of Nigerian filmmakers, by some Ghanaian TV stations.
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The Authority emphasized that these acts undermine the efforts of content creators and discourage investment in Ghana’s creative sector.
While the NFA’s commitment to protecting intellectual property was welcomed, Francis Doku took issue with a specific claim in the statement regarding punitive measures.
The NFA had warned that “offenders risk having their licenses suspended or revoked”, a claim the renowned writer said misrepresents the Authority’s actual legal mandate.
“For the sake of public education, TV stations don’t operate with/under ‘license.’ They do so under ‘authorization’.” He explained that it is the National Communications Authority (NCA), not the NFA, that grants the necessary authorizations for broadcast operations.
“The NCA issues spectrum ‘licence’ to telcos and ‘authorisation’ to operate to broadcast (radio/TV) companies,” he noted, emphasizing, “The NFA doesn’t license or authorise TV stations. It is not clothed with that mandate.”
Francis Doku also made the emphatic statement, “You cannot revoke a license that does not exist, and you did not issue.”
He went on to acknowledge that piracy is a serious issue in Ghana, where intellectual property rights are frequently ignored. However, he advised that the NFA should explore collaborative avenues with institutions such as the NCA, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), and the television stations themselves to effectively address the problem.
