Ghanaweb Didn't Inspire Okyeame Kwame To Go ''international'’

Assuming you were a writer and you realize your article has been published on a different medium without giving you any credit, how would you feel? Definitely you wouldn't feel happy about such an occurrence. Unfortunately, this is the kind of behavior encountered all the time especially within the entertainment industry.

There are several times I have held my anger but this time around, I need to voice my feelings. Some days back, I saw Okyeame Kwame's update on facebook which spoke about his inspiration for the ''African Connection'' album. In case you don't know, that album is an album to be released by Okyeame Kwame and features artistes from all over Africa and that is the first of its kind from him.

Okyeame Kwame got the inspiration to come up with that album all because of an article he chanced upon on Ghanaweb.com. In that article, the writer posed a simple question ''Is Okyeame Kwame Really Serious '' and went on to speak about how successful Okyeame Kwame is in Ghana but totally unknown in any other country among other things. You can search for that article on the internet.

To set the records straight, I wrote that article and had it published on flexghana.com (Flex newspaper) but unfortunately it seems like ghanaweb.com is getting all the credit for that story. In an article titled ''Okyeame Kwame says Ghanaweb Inspired him to go International'', which has been published on some websites all over the country, Okyeame Kwame gives Ghanaweb all the credit for the inspiration.   Ghanaweb.com  knowing that it did not write that story should have set the records straight by saying  that it rather culled the story from flexghana.com which was written by yours truly, Ebenezer Narh Affum.

Speaking to Okyeame Kwame in an exclusive interview, he noted that all these while he thought the story was that of ghanaweb.com and was written by its editor all because during a press conference where he spoke about the ''African Connection'' album, when he asked who wrote that article, all fingers pointed to the editor of ghanaweb.com.   Quite unfortunately, the editor has never seen the need to mention the right writer of the article. What a shame!

There are several media houses, writers and bloggers out there who are not creative, lazy and can't write their own stories. All they do is to ''steal'' people's stories and most of the time, do not give credit to the writer; no wonder one writer publishes an article and then in the next minute, dozens of bloggers jump on the story to make it  their own.  These lazy writers or bloggers do not cross check even if the information in the article is correct or not, but just use it.

This kind of journalism should stop; writers and bloggers who are not creative and talented enough to write articles should desist from stealing other writers' stories. You can use any writer's article but make sure you give credit to that writer.  I expect Ghanaweb.com to come forth and apologize to me and my medium Flex newspaper. I demand that apology.  Writers or bloggers who do not know how to write should not force themselves to do so or steal from others.

Finally, once again to set the records straight, I (Ebenezer Narh Affum) was the writer who provoked and inspired Okyeame Kwame to work on the ''African Connection”. I rest my case.

By Ebenezer Narh Affum