Today I attended a breakfast meeting hosted by Sir Michael Lyons on the 'BBC Trust a year on'. While breakfast meetings are commendable in theory, questions arise as to whether such meetings are accessible for all AMs, or the public with interest in this issue- those with family commitments could be a case in point. This is a side issue of course, but one worth taking in to consideration. In one of the breakfast meetings that I attended in my region for example, I was one of two women present out of over 30 men....
Coming on to the issue of the BBC, its network news provision and the lack of Welsh news coverage was raised by numerous AMs- and raised quite passionately so. We made the point that Plaid MP Adam Price made last year regarding the shockingly miniscule time and resources provided to cover Welsh news on the BBC network, and I also raised the way in which we have to battle to get any political representation on Question Time when it comes to Wales even though, ironically, a Welsh company, Tinopolis produces the show! There is an ongoing review into this particular issue, so we will have to wait and see what come of that. Nevertheless, it was ackowledged that all 'regions' needed to be reflected in the news provision, so that 'regions' are not disillusioned with output from the BBC in the future.
Of course, on other issues, we celebrated the shows made in Wales by BBC Wales such as Torchwood (members of the Arts committee here at the Assembly were invited to a launch of the show last night. Not including me unfortunately!) and Doctor Who, but the point was made that such programmes should be expanded, and expertise used in Wales to produce first class programmes. The Coal House was a tremendous success, for example, and I know that my family really enjoyed it, even if I think that it was a little stereotypical myself! This is how we need to progress anyhow, and justify clearly to the people of Wales as to why paying the license fee really is worth it.
3 comments:
If questions of the BBc are to be asked (a brilliant public institution in my opinion) then even greater ones are required of S4C which is a channel purely about furthering political and social interests of minority Welsh speakers.
Just for the historic record, when the then Home Secretary William Whitelaw reneged on the Tory promise of a Sianel Gymraeg S4C TV, several of us in Cymru decided to transgress authority in acts of defiance to the State. I was one of those. I was subsequently fined in Court and refused to pay the fine and subsequently arrested by Police and eventually the Court recovered the Fine (which I consistently refused to pay on principle in contempt of a court order) using a detachment from my earnings. Of course the modern day Plaid Cymru whimps would not dare to set foot in a Cell for any good cause for our Nation as long as they get their comfortable huge salaries as MPs and AMs. I'm proud of my tiny part in getting S4C TV established. It has its faults, but certainly not to the extent of the views of "anonymous" in the above posting.
i am glad that welsh broadcasting is on the agenda at the Assembly finally, maybe you could look at the print media as well.
We are poorly served by both and are in desperate need for our politicians to take the issues seriously and take some action and not keep sweeping the issues under the carpet.
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