BBC Newsnight apologises after much criticised Welsh language debate

As previously reported there was a considerable amount of criticism pointed at the BBC programme Newsnight after an unfairly balanced item about the Welsh language was aired on Wednesday night. The BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight posed the question "is the Welsh language a help or hindrance to the nation ", this was followed up in an item where the presenter suggested the Welsh language was a hobby and invited a contribution from an individual with a long track record of trolling the Welsh language.

Last night Newsnight were forced to have admit their debate on the Welsh language earlier this week was unfair. Although the apology was couched in the usual reluctant BBC manner, it was nevertheless an embarrassing climbdown and the programme host concluded by saying:

"But understandably we had more than a few comments suggesting we had not done justice to the language by discussing it without a Welsh speaker.

"I am not going to pretend that we disagree. We think it would have been better to have a Welsh speaker too."