At a global film summit held in France, regulators and rights holders praised the results achieved through website blocking. However, one roundtable participant—South African Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie—voiced objections. The minister accused the film industry of applying double standards to piracy and called for an equal partnership rather than simply accepting instructions imposed from outside.

Earlier in September, French President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung hosted the one-day Lumière Summit in southern France, bringing together ministers, film industry executives and filmmakers.

Several thematic declarations were signed at the close of the summit, including one on international cooperation against piracy.

Motion Picture Association (MPA) CEO Charles Rivkin had originally been scheduled to deliver a keynote address before the “Racing Against Piracy” session. However, he was delayed by a meeting of heads of state, and Emilie Anthonis, President of the MPA’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region, delivered brief remarks in his place. By then, however, McKenzie’s comments had already reset the tone of the entire discussion, prompting a reassessment of piracy-related issues.

McKenzie joined the roundtable alongside Martin Ajdari, head of the French audiovisual and digital communication regulator ARCOM, and Sylvie Forbin, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The latter two had previously outlined the results of their respective anti-piracy efforts.

Representing the South African government, McKenzie said he agreed that piracy was harmful, but disagreed with almost everything else.

“We need to define what piracy is,” he said. “Those responsible for combating piracy have failed to define it clearly.” He then elaborated on what he described as the industry’s double standards.

His first example came from the summit itself. McKenzie said that, earlier that morning, a filmmaker had told the audience that his films were banned in Egypt, but people could still watch them through piracy.

The director said he was pleased that local audiences could see his work, and “the audience even applauded,” McKenzie recounted.

He offered a second example: Heated Rivalry, a Canadian series about gay ice hockey players. The series was banned in some countries, but pirated versions circulated there, and “the entire film industry likewise viewed this positively and supported it.”

Drawing on his own country’s history, the minister also recalled that, during apartheid in South Africa, several films were prohibited from public distribution, leaving piracy as the only way people could watch them.

McKenzie argued that piracy was interpreted differently when it involved works subject to bans or censorship, with film industry professionals even expressing approval. Yet ordinary people faced legal consequences for engaging in piracy. He described the industry’s approach as “contradictory” and accused it of applying “double standards.”

“Egyptians Access Banned Films Through Piracy”

The director McKenzie referred to was Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh, whose notable works include The Nile Hilton Incident and Boy from Heaven. Both are set in Cairo, and both were banned from screening in Egypt.

During the summit’s opening session, Saleh said that Egyptian authorities had ordered him to leave the country when he was preparing to shoot his debut film.

“I had planned to shoot my first film in Egypt, but I was told to leave. To put it mildly, their exact words were ‘get out of this country.’” He subsequently chose to complete filming in Morocco.

Saleh added that Egyptians could still watch his work through piracy, and that he had no objection whatsoever to this form of distribution.

“This is where piracy’s role is reversed. Egyptians generally access film and television content through piracy, and that actually works very much in my favor,” he said with a laugh.

These remarks did not receive applause. The moderator immediately interjected, suggesting that the question could be put to regulators during the afternoon’s piracy panel. No one raised it there, however; instead, McKenzie brought the contradiction into the open.

“We Are Not Children”

McKenzie’s subsequent remarks addressed the points made by his fellow panelists. Ajdari had previously explained that, over the past five years, ARCOM had issued more than 22,000 website-blocking and content-takedown orders, including 10,000 in 2026 alone. Since 2018, the piracy audience had shrunk by half.

McKenzie acknowledged that these achievements deserved recognition, but stressed that progress in a single country had limited value if other countries were doing little. He compared the situation to a boat leaking on only one side.

“We are all in the same boat, and we all oppose piracy,” he said. “The leaking side is ours, while you are boasting about the results achieved on your side.”

The minister also criticized the continuing external pressure on developing countries to comply with relevant rules. Forbin had previously discussed some of the conditions attached to joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the 1990s, prompting an explicit rebuttal from McKenzie.

“Do not treat us like children, taking a punitive approach and demanding that we passively comply with the rules. We are not children.” These remarks were not directed specifically at his fellow panelists.

South Africa is no stranger to such pressure. In 2020, U.S. copyright groups called on the U.S. government to reconsider South Africa’s trade preferences, arguing that the fair use provisions in its copyright bill were too broad.

“We Are Not Beggars”

As the panel drew to a close, McKenzie emphasized that South Africa’s position had nothing to do with funding. South Africa did not lack the resources to carry out anti-piracy work and could commit funding on the same scale as Sweden or the United Kingdom. Its primary demand was to receive the respect it deserved.

“We do not lack funding. Some developing countries do face funding shortfalls, but South Africa is not among them,” McKenzie said. “But we do not want to receive money from outside and then be instructed to carry out prescribed actions one, two and three. We also want all parties to listen seriously to our concerns.”

“We are not beggars,” he added. “What we want is an equal partnership.”

McKenzie explained that the South African government had held preliminary discussions with French media group Canal+ about piracy of live football broadcasts. Anti-piracy messages were now shown before every live football broadcast in South Africa. South Africa was willing to help address piracy, provided it was treated as a serious partner.

The Lumière Summit ultimately concluded with the signing of a formal declaration calling for stronger international cooperation against piracy.

The document is a voluntary agreement and contains no binding commitments. To date, no South African representative has signed the declaration.