Local TV & Radio Stations to comply with copyright regulations

Francine Burns

Copyright compliance remains an issue for the local broadcast media to bring television and radio stations into conformity with existing regulations.  Today, licensees from across the country met with the Belize Broadcasting Authority to discuss a timeline for when they are to become compliant, particularly where it concerns the use of copyrighted material from content providers within the region.  Francine Burns, Chair of the Belize Broadcasting Authority tells News Five that the transition should be completed by year’s end.

Francine Burns, Chair, Belize Broadcasting Authority

“From the BBA’s perspective, as the regulatory body for content that’s broadcasted, be it through the cable provider, the radio or the local TV station.  We wanted to bring to light the issue of copyright compliance.  It’s a sort of heavy issue, but it’s something that, from a government standpoint, as a country, we are moving towards copyright compliance.  Through BELIPO which is the Belize Intellectual Property Office, they are moving in the direction of signing or acceding to five treaties that do deal with copyright compliance.  So the deadline to become compliant is at the end of this year.  We will be signing on and then everybody has certain obligations to keep, in respect of those treaties.  So we wanted to bring to light what is happening in that realm to have the broadcasters who are also content producers bear in mind that we are making that move, the government is making that move, the country is expected to move in a certain direction and that they will have to have this trickledown effect into the programs that they are producing or the programs that they are broadcasting and to begin the discussion as to what will be the way forward.”