Latest update June 1st, 2026 12:37 AM
Mr. Ambassador, please make music royalty restoration a litmus test for anti-corruption action
Dear Editor,
I read with great interest US Ambassador Brent Hardt’s admonition to the Guyana government on enforcement of laws against corrupt money since we are a party to the Inter-American convention against corruption (KN, March 14, 2013).
My interest here is the penchant of our government for brazenly flouting international laws to which we are signatories with no apparent sanctions from the international community.
For example, we are a party to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) laws which cover music royalty among others. As far back as there was a radio station in Guyana, local recording artistes whose music was aired on the radio were paid royalties. I was one such artiste among many who received monies annually as Performing Right Society members.
My payments began promptly after my first recordings in 1980 and continued in the same pattern with my other recordings through the years to the early 90s. This situation ceased after 1992, without explanation.
We musicians are asking Ambassador Hardt to use the restoration of music royalty and compensation to all affected local artistes as a litmus test to our government to end the wanton delinquency it fosters against laws to which it is a signatory. This test is most important at this time since a number of new radio stations are about to be plunged into this pool of delinquency. If a government institution cannot clean the moat out of its own eye, how can it seek the whereabouts of corruption to sanitize?
B. Houston
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