Wales: Call For Separate Welsh News At Six

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

In a call that has echoes of the ‘Scottish Six’ campaign Plaid Cymru has called for separate evening primetime news to be produced in Wales, for Wales, in order to lead a new direction in indigenous Welsh media.

It is suggested that such a move would stimulate a new indigenous Welsh media and it is further suggested that running the primetime news programmes from Wales would tackle the London-centric nature of the news, and set the bar for public service broadcasting.

Speaking about the proposal in the National Assembly, Plaid Cymru’s, Elin Jones AM, said:

“A strong media is an integral element of a free and fully-functioning democracy in this country. Not to make life easier for politicians but to make life harder for them.
“We need to enhance the opportunities people have of scrutinising their elected representatives and in particular the government.

“It is my view that public broadcasting can and should set the bar. One obvious way in which it could do so would be for the main BBC prime time news to be run, edited and broadcast from Wales and for Wales.

“In this way we could get a Welsh perspective on UK and international news – in English and Welsh. This would lead a new direction in indigenous Welsh media and would be good for democracy in Wales.”

As indicated the Plaid proposal is similar to the so called ‘Scottish Six’ which was one of the longest running controversies regarding news broadcasting in Scotland. The proposal was for an early evening, weekday BBC television news programme, containing international, UK and Scottish items, produced and edited in Scotland. The argument surrounding it ranged over several years and the SNP have recently been arguing for devolution of broadcast powers again.

BERNARD MOFFATT

Issued by: The Celtic News

24/09/15

THE CELTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION SERVICE.

The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues

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