The director of Fine and Performing Arts at the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has disclosed that Vinasha Film Production got closed down due to the company’s involvement in illegal business.

Sheikh Omar Jallow made the disclosure during the ‘comments and suggestion session’ at the two-day stakeholder workshop organised by the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and Africa Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel from 23rd to 24th April 2012.

The comments and suggestion session gave the participants to the opportunity to speak their minds about series of issues they felt will affect an effective implementation of Intellectual Property (IP) related policy in the country including implementation of the country’s Copyright Law of 2004.

Jallow defended his institution, especially on allegations that the NCAC is still silent on the effective implementation of the country’s Copyright Bureau, as indicated in the low awareness among many Gambians about the existence of a copyright law, especially the artists fraternity, who are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of the said law.

He cited what he called giant steps made by NCAC towards having an effective domestication of the 2004 Copyrights Law of The Gambia. He started with the Vinasha Production Company Ltd, which he said was engaged in an illegal sales of artistic products produced in The Gambia to Europe and America, which clearly contravenes the spirit and purpose of the Copyrights Law of The Gambia and other parts of the globe.

He said NCAC through its Copyrights Office investigated the matter, which ended up in court and a decision was made to close Vinasha Production Company, though its owners had already left the country.

Jallow recalled another case of illegal sales of programme tickets by a certain person, who made duplicated thousands of the said programme ticket prior to the programme date and sold thousands of the duplicated tickets at a price lower than the actual ticket price pegged by the organisers.

Jallow said an investigation was mounted, which led to the arrest of the culprit, who was later taken to court and fined for committing the offence. These and many other success stories, according to Mr Jallow attested to the commitment of t NCAC towards effective implementation of the country’s Copyright Law.

On his part, Hasoum Ceesay, director of the Copyrights Office and Curator at the NCAC listed the numerous training programmes for stakeholders on domestication of the Copyrights Law, organised by the NCAC with support from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) at different venues and places over the years. He singled out the training of artists and stakeholders held at the Baobab Holiday Resort in Bijilo, among other sensitisation programmes embarked upon by NCAC over the years.