News
The Footage Was Obtained Legally – GTA Responds To Kirani Ayat
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has responded to a claim of intellectual property infringement made by Ghanaian musician Kirani Ayat.
The Authority stated in a statement released on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, that “the footage in question was acquired legitimately
from a bespoke creative agency as part of a project in 2019.”
It was also revealed that the aforementioned video had been played several times locally and internationally without incident in accordance with the terms agreed with the agency and not as alleged.
Read the full statement below.
Our attention has been drawn to a tweet by Kirani Ayat and a publication by GhanaWeb regarding a video produced by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), which has been shared on our platforms since 2019 and recently on the social media handles of the President.
For the record, the footage in question was acquired legitimately from a bespoke creative agency as part of a project in 2019.
This video has thus been played severally locally and internationally without any issue. The content was used in accordance with the terms agreed with the agency and not as being alleged.
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 above notwithstanding, since the Authority became aware of the tweet from @kiraniayat, we have reached out to the Agency to deal with the matter. This is without prejudice to any legal options available to the Authority against the Artiste and/or Agency or vice versa.
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.”
On Tuesday, September 27, 2022, Kirani Ayat called out the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo for sharing a campaign which used portions of his creative piece without any prior arrangements.
In a tweet, he wrote;
“The president of Ghana has used my video “GUDA” in this ad to promote Ghana. 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.”
The president of Ghana has used my video “GUDA” in this ad to promote Ghana. 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. 🤦♂️ https://t.co/vLnAP0bRqf
— Kirani Ayat 🌍 (@KiraniAYAT) September 27, 2022
Watch Guda by Kirani Ayat Below
