Emma Gichonge |
On Friday night the company hosted a PAP symposium in
the capital city, Lilongwe, which
attracted various stakeholder to discuss ways to fight piracy and popularize
awareness of domestic laws that criminalize the practice.
Emma
Gichonge, Managing Director of MultiChoice Malawi emphasized that piracy is remains a serious crime that has a negative
effect on economy hence engaging key industry stakeholders to collectively
clamp down on content piracy and create awareness against content theft.
“Piracy harms investor confidence and tax revenue, and
may also affect trade opportunities if Malawi is seen as a country where intellectual
property is not respected and protected.” She said
Gichonge then shared that PAP intends to educate the mass by communicating the repercussions of piracy and the effect it has on businesses, creatives and the economy; also create awareness by appealing to media and creatives to amplify the effects of piracy, as well as, driving sensitization and awareness of the impact of piracy on Africa’s creative industries and growth potential overall.
PAP was officially launched in Malawi in 2021 as part of a greater pan-African campaign in order to drive conversations and awareness on the effects of global piracy which at present costs the global entertainment industry up to $71 billion every year.
It is estimated that this industry loss is more than the annual GDP of Mozambique, Uganda and Guinea combined – representing the impact on the US entertainment sector alone.
“No country looking to build a creative industry can
afford to lose this income. For this reason, MultiChoice has thrown it’s weight
behind PAP to provide an African context for this growing global issue.” Added
Gichonge
Presenting on the role of Media in Promoting Access to information
and free speech Deputy Chairperson for Parliamentary Committee on
Media and Information Communication, Hon. Thoko Tembo, encouraged Malawians to
take responsibility in fighting piracy to ensure that local creatives earn a
living from their talent.
“Piracy is harmful to the
creative industry since the owners of the work do not benefit from the
exploitation” he said
Hon. Thoko Tembo |
He further reminded the media, one of the consumers of creative works, to always adhere to copyright laws if the creative industry is to be sustainable.
“The Media must first show responsible consumption of content.
Secondly the Media has the capacity to shape debate and get people to ask the
right questions.” Added Hon. Tembo
He also appealed to the
Copyright Society of Malawi (CoSoMa) to help promote the enforcement of Copyright law and the
understanding of the same by the general public
and the artists themselves.
“Currently artists are lobbying for the swift enactment of the
National Arts and Heritage Council which will help fund and
promote the arts and also fight for the rights of artists. It is therefore my appeal that PAP should add its voice on the need for such a council. It should be noted
that Malawi is one of the few countries in Southern Africa, if not the only
one, which has no Arts Council. This means the sector is deprived of its
development and everyone’s help is needed to make sure that Nahec is enacted as
this will revamp and contribute significant income to the country’s GDP.” Added Hon. Tembo
Chirambo |
Speaking on the importance of telling local stories, Film
Association of Malawi President, Gift Sukali emphasized that artists have responsibility of telling
own stories as doing so, will help popularize Malawian stories to the world in
a way that can never be told by non-Malawian producers.
He said this has great potential of generating
economic benefits to local content producers.
Sukali |
Sukali said production of any creative content especially films demands huge investment of resources and effort hence the need to avoid stealing creative works.
No comments:
Post a Comment