‘I Find Telenovelas On Ghanaian TV Offensive’

First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has registered his displeasure with the continuous proliferation of foreign content, particularly telenovelas on Ghanaian TV screens, and nothing is still being done about it.

According to him, it is not only offensive to local content production but also Ghanaian culture in general.

He disclosed he has stopped watching TV as a result, except for the news.

Mr. Osei-Owusu, who is also the Chairman of Parliament’s Appointment Committee, made this known on Tuesday during the vetting of Deputy Minister-designate for Tourism, Arts & Culture, Mark Okraku-Mantey.

He said it is difficult for him to understand why institutions mandated to make sure local content becomes the order of the day have been relaxed in carrying out their duties.

“It’s very interesting. I’m not very much of a television person. I hardly watch, apart from news. But anytime I go home from work, what I see is something that is not familiar to me, it’s not Ghanaian even though they are purporting to show it in Ghanaian languages. Kumkum Bagya was that bad. There are the new ones, I find it very offensive so I go straight to be in my bedroom. I don’t want to have anything to do with those things,” he indicated.




“You have the Media Commission but it is growing. It’s not limited to one television station; it appears to be the order of the day…What happened to the local series? Why have we lost those content on our television,” he added.

But in response, Mr. Okraku-Mantey stated that producing compelling local content is one of the surest ways of arresting the problem.

The issue of the influx of foreign content on Ghanaian TV has always been discussed on major platforms and at different levels. At a point filmmakers in Kumawood sector of the movie industry took to the streets to demonstrate about it. According to them, it was one of the reasons their industry was facing a lot of setbacks. However, the problem of telenovelas still persists, as TV stations continue to show them despite the complaints. Mr. Osei-Owusu says the appropriate authority must work to arrest the problem.

Source:dailyguidenetwork.com