Minister Inaugurates Cinematograph Board

Accra, June 18, GNA - Mr John Tia Akologu, Minister of Information on Friday inaugurated a 25-member Cinematograph Exhibition Board of Control and charged it to look out particularly for and deal with pornographic, violent and culturally unacceptable films in the country.

The old Board was dissolved owing to the public outcry about its inability to avert objectionable material being shown on the television, public cinema and video theatres even though Act 76 of the Cinematograph Act of 1961 authorised it to censor films.

Mr Akologu said the new Board "will constitute a preview and classification committee.until the passage into law, the development and classification of a Film Bill to provide the machinery to deal with the production, previewing, distribution and marketing of films." He called on producers of audio-visual materials and television companies to produce films that were sensitive to the concerns of the Ghanaian public.

"I wish to urge the industry practitioners to produce educative and positive films instead of films full of violence, pornography and other offensive sounds and images that are harmful to our minds especially the fragile minds of our children," he said.

Mr Augustine Abbey, President of the Film Producers Association of Ghana and member of the new Board, on behalf of his colleagues, expressed the Board's commitment to partner with government to bring sanity to the film industry through strict censorship. "I also hope that by the censorship, the move would not send creativity to exile," he said.