Okoroji Charges Lawmakers To Urge Govt-Owned Stations To Respect Artistes

Members of the National and State House of Assemblies have been charged to make sure government–owned media houses respect Nigerian artistes. This call was made by the chairman of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Tony Okoroji, at a recent event held in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, Okoroji said this was necessary because of the way some government owned radio and television stations treat Nigerian artistes. He also advised the lawmakers to make state-owned media houses comply and respect the Nigeria copyright laws.

Okoroji noted that the significant success recorded by COSON in the few years since its approval in 2010 cannot be fully comprehended if proper efforts are not made to ensure that music users across the country respect copyright laws.

“Today, we call on the National Assembly to ensure that forthwith, clear provisions are made in the budgets of all Federal government owned broadcast stations for the payment of copyright royalties. We refuse to accept a situation where the stations continue with the open stealing of the intellectual property of innocent creative people simply because there is no budget for the payment for the key raw material they deploy in their operations.”

“Any scheme by which the stations are required to pay royalties from their meagre or non-existent ‘internally generated revenue’ is a joke andsimply unacceptable to us,” he declared.

Okoroji noted that most of the stations were set up for political reasons.

In his words, “They have very little chance of generating proper revenue. Meanwhile, they sustain their operations by freely using the intellectual property of innocent citizens who have invested in creativity with hard earned money.”