Ghanaian film producer Shirley Frimpong-Manso has strongly condemned television stations that air unauthorised films, describing the act as not only criminal but deeply hurtful to filmmakers.
Speaking on Daybreak Hitz with Doreen Avio, the award-winning filmmaker expressed frustration over the widespread disregard for copyright laws in Ghana’s media landscape.
“I want to kill all of them. I have a personal concern and I do not watch pirated stuff — I don’t care,” she said passionately. “People have said, ‘Oh, have you seen it?’ I said no. They said, ‘Oh, use this link and you can watch it.’ I never do because I know how much it hurts to spend.”
Frimpong-Manso highlighted the intense labour and financial cost involved in producing films, stressing that each production is a demanding endeavour requiring significant resources.
“Movie making is excruciating — the money, having to have 30, 40-plus people on set every day, feeding them — it’s a lot,” she explained. “Even a five or ten-day production involves feeding everyone breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner. The emotional, financial, and logistical investment is massive.”
She described the emotional devastation of having those efforts undermined by piracy.
“To be able to put that movie out and have somebody just take it and show it… I can’t begin to describe it. It hurts more than anything in the world.”
Frimpong-Manso also questioned the lack of accountability and enforcement despite clear evidence of wrongdoing by media houses that air pirated content.
“I don’t understand why we know who the culprits are, and somehow they’re still out there doing it,” she said. “This is something we can’t keep warning people about — it’s a criminal offence. There’s evidence. I don’t understand why we’re babysitting this kind of thing.”
Her comments have sparked renewed calls within the industry for stricter enforcement of intellectual property laws and greater respect for the work of Ghanaian creatives.