Private legal practitioner, Serwaah Sarfo Mensah has reacted to a statement made by actor and radio presenter, Mickey Osei Berkoe, that it is a crime to show foreign movies during prime time.

This comes shortly after the actor in an interview with Kwame Dadzie on Showbiz A-Z, said media houses which show telenovelas at prime time must be prosecuted.

“I see Telenovelas streamed at prime time as criminal and that, media houses should be prosecuted for causing financial loss to the state. It is one of the solutions so policymakers should establish these laws”, he said on Joy FM.

However, Lawyer Serwaah Sarfo Mensah says it is not a criminal act since no law has been explicitly stated regarding the showing of these foreign contents.

Speaking to Andy Dosty on the Daybreak Hitz, she explained that it is not an offence to do so.

“It is not criminal. No law regulates or governs the showing of international content on our TVs in Ghana. Also, for every crime, there should be an offence to it. No offence has been committed by the media or the TV station by showing international content during prime time.

“Offenses should either have a negative or a positive impact on an individual. Even with that, not all things that affect people negatively become an offence”, she said on Hitz FM.

She further illustrated with her experience, how the international content she consumed helped her career.

“We sometimes have to learn; I like to learn about other cultures, I know my culture but I keep on learning every time. I also love to learn about other cultures too. For example, about 2 years ago, I had a case in court, I watched one of these telenovelas which helped influence my case.

"It did help me with regards to the strategies and plans with that case,” she stated.

The legal practitioner also highlighted with facts that foreign movies at prime time breeds income and good relationships among countries.

“If I go to Mexico right now, I won’t have trouble fitting in because, by watching these telenovelas, I happen to know more about them. It is not only about telenovelas but Nigerians as well, we learn their culture and relate well with them.”

“It doesn’t cause financial loss because it rather brings income to the state. When telenovelas are being aired, people use it as a means to advertise and this generates income to the media houses and the country as a whole”, she stated.

She admonished Ghanaians to embrace the positive influence this foreign content brings to them in all spheres.

“We ‘Ghanaians’ are dynamic. We don’t only live here by ourselves. We do with our international brothers and sisters. For the sake of competition, marketing, and education, we ‘media houses’ do not have to only stick to our Ghanaian content to entertain our viewers. Mine is that, we shouldn’t limit or restrict ourselves to just our own”, she added.