NFVCB: We’ve seized, destroyed over two billion unlicensed films

The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) says it has seized and destroyed over two billion copies of unlicensed works.

According to NAN, Adedayo Thomas, NFVCB’s CEO, spoke of the board’s fight against “immoral films” during a workshop in Calabar.

He said the NFVCB is not against creativity and intellectual property but frowns at “non-cultural” films content.

He said the workshop became necessary to bridge the gap between the young and the old and to take the campaign against unlicensed and uncensored films in the nation to Cross River through enlightenment.

“The whole idea of training and empowering youths as ambassadors is to ensure that those that want to go into the movie industry can create movies that are morally upright and not offensive to our cultures,” the CEO said.

“This is because the continuous exposure of the people to violent and immoral films does not affect the youths alone, but the entire fabric of the nation.

“This is why in our raids in Lagos, Onitsha, Sokoto, Kaduna, and others towns, in the last few years, we have seized and destroyed over two billion copies of uncensored and unclassified works.”

At the event, Fidelis Duker, founder of the Abuja Film Festival, said movies were a medium of passing messages.

“We must be conscious of the type of message that is being passed. As a nation, we must not give glamour to evil by promoting villainy in our films, because the impact would be catastrophic to the society,” he added.

“It is our moral obligation to ensure that our movies do not portray or give glamour to evil. As individuals, we should first self-regulate by refusing and reporting any movie that encourages negative tendencies.

“Nigerians can never be Americans. If we must grow, we must encourage our ways of life that promote uprightness and morality in our films.”