Kirani Ayat Takes On GTA Over “President Plagiarism”
Kirani Ayat, Ghanaian Artiste who alleges that President Akufo-Addo used his work in a tourism advertisement without credit or permission has taken on the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).
His attack against the Authority followed its assertion that the videos used in the advertisement in question was properly secured from an agency.
“For the record, the footage in question was acquired legitimately from a bespoke creative agency as part of a project in 2019.
“…According to Clause 2 (b) of the MOU signed with the Agency (Obligations: Responsibility of the Agency), the Agency was to “Deliver imaginative and impactful social strategies, such as content or documentaries for the use of GTA ‘as it so wishes’. The agency delivered the content to the Authority, and the Authority used the content in accordance with the terms of the MOU”, the GTA said in a statement this morning.
In reaction, the embattled artiste said, “I, Kirani Ayat would like to state categorically that No agency has any Rights whatsoever to my intellectual property neither have I given such rights to any agency either expressly or implied”.
He also threatened to take legal action against GTA if it fails to publicly name the agency it alleges gave it the right to the “GUDA” video.
Background
On September 27, President Akufo-Addo posted a tourism advertisement on Twitter seeking to promote tourism in the country.
The 2-minute clip captured various tourist sites across the country, culture, food, and dance of the people of Ghana with the voice over of the president accompanying the scenes.
The video with the caption, “Beneath the deep blue sky, the Black Star is calling. Follow the stars and let them take you on a journey of our people. I invite everyone to the country at the centre of the world – #Ghana . #VisitGhana2022” was retweeted by Kirani accusing the president of plagiarism.
“The president of Ghana has used my video “GUDA” in this ad to promote Ghana”, he wrote, adding “Whoever worked on this video should’ve reached out to the rightful content owners before proceeding”.
According to the artiste, he reached out to the Ministry of Tourism with the video between 2018 and 2019 to push tourism in the Northern region but was snubbed.
“I was actively reaching out to the Ministry of Tourism in 2018/19 to use this video to push tourism in the North and got NO reply, yet today it’s in an ad and no one reached out to me for permission”, he tweeted yesterday.
Recounting the ordeal he went through in making that video, he said he had to take up a security guard job which demanded that he worked from 7 pm to 7am all week for three months in order to save up for the video
“I worked 7 days a week from 7PM to 7AM for 3 months straight as a security guard just to save up to make this “GUDA” video possible. Various awards shows snubbed it, the ministry ignored it, I reached out a couple time to no avail. I was depressed throughout that period.
“FYI After spending thousands of dollars to shoot the video for #GUDA I needed money for promo, with no support from anywhere, I had to sell my SUV to promote the video worldwide, even today I still owe YouTube ads cause of it”.
The allegation about support has however been denied by the GTA.
“The Authority has been very supportive of the Arts and has created platforms for engagement and performances for our Artistes, and we will continue to do so in our quest to make Ghana the preferred tourism destination.”
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
