Tati Mangi PNG has responded to the decision to ban his music video.
While he has no grudges against the Censorship Board and the Minister responsible, he has one appeal to the office of the Minister for Religion, Youth and Community Development:
“Help the music industry and provide a good platform for upcoming artists.”
Tati says at the moment, there is no direction and without help, artists are coming up with anything.
“This is a long time issue. We struggle with piracy, there’s no stable industry or platform to boost creativity and no awareness on copyright, etc.
“I appreciate the Minister’s concern, but my appeal now is, for her to fight for the artists and see that we benefit” he said.
“You help us, educate us, set the guidelines straight for us and establish a revenue generating platform for us.”
Tati also raised other general concerns:
“We call ourselves a Christian county, we stress on gender equality and talk about being culturally appropriate while our radio stations have been airing opposite content for years,” he said.
He pointed out songs like Sex on the Beach by T-Spoon, Sweat (A La La Long) by Inner Circle and The Bad Touch (Discovery Channel) by Bloodhound Gang.
“It seems unfair that these international music allowed to freely air is explicit in content to PNG and talks openly about sex – a cultural taboo. That’s a double standard practise. Will these be controlled too?” he asked.
He further clarified his stand on his music video - Bootylicious.
“I understand they’re just doing their job to safeguard citizens, especially the young generation.
"Just to make things clear, I have not distributed the music and video to local media. I only uploaded it on Youtube, so it’s all a matter of choice for the public, whether to watch it or ignore it,” he said.
See related article Bootylicious banned from being broadcast