State-owned national television GTV has taken an official decision to blacklist Ghanaian musician Sidney Ofori, known in showbiz circles a Barima Sidney, NEWS-ONE has gathered.
Though GTV has not given an official explanation for this decision, high level sources from station say it is a politically motivated decision from the powers that be within the ruling government.
Since the decision was taken, GTV is on record to have refused to give airtime to the celebrated musician, even when the musician was ready to pay for it.
NEWS-ONE has also confirmed that GTV has turned away three different music videos from Barima Sidney. The said music videos were for Barima’s hit songs, ‘Enkoyie’, ‘Gadindingadem’ and his latest hit ‘Bye-Bye’. All three songs appear to be political satires that talk about the economic hardships of a society in a rather amusing way. They don’t contain anything vulgar, profane, indecent, inciting or insulting. “There is a five-member board that has been set up to ensure anything from Sidney does not get airplay.
His songs are always talking about hardships and it makes the government seem as if they are not working.
If we continue to play such songs, the other parties would benefit and we have realized that because his songs do not have any political colour, they convince more people and in an election year, we should not be seen to be promoting such things that can be used against government,” a deep-throat source on GTV’s board told NEWS-ONE.