For decades, Plaid Cymru has campaigned for the devolution of broadcasting and communications powers to Wales. Today's announcement is therefore an important and historic moment as we move a step closer to this following the formation of the expert panel. In fact, we can trace this struggle back to the 1970s, before some of us here today were born, with calls from Plaid Cymru and Cymdeithas yr Iaith for a Welsh-language television service, and then, of course, Gwynfor Evans's campaign for a Welsh-language television channel, where he threatened to go on hunger strike if the Government of Margaret Thatcher did not establish a channel.

After all, we have our own sports teams, our own national organisations, including our own Parliament, our own language, and it also makes sense for us to be responsible for broadcasting and communications. And I'm pleased to see the Government, as a result of the co-operation agreement, now supporting this, and I note the points made by Alun Davies that the Labour Party is not united on it, but I am pleased to see that we can co-operate and see value in this through the agreement.

Why is it important to devolve broadcasting? Well, media deficiencies are causing knowledge gaps in Wales, and devolving broadcasting and establishing this panel would help to close that gap. In 2016, only 37 per cent of people in Wales were watching BBC Wales Today and 17 per cent were watching ITV Wales at Six. With so many of our nation's people receiving British news rather than indigenous news, this creates a democratic deficit and a deficit of political awareness. Indeed, a study by Cardiff University and YouGov found that 40 per cent of people in Wales wrongly believed that Plaid Cymru was in Government between 2011 and 2016. Obviously, I wish that that had been the case, but isn't it really worrying that 40 per cent of the populace at the time didn't know which party was responsible for decisions that affected their day-to-day lives so much?

This deficit brings further consequences for the people of Wales. The 'Joint NGO Shadow Report on Racial Inequality in Wales' in 2021 said the following, and I quote:

'as Wales does not have a strong independent media identity, the English press agenda will often be echoed in Wales. The English media's coverage of migrants and refugees is of particular concern, with divisive and inflammatory language such as "swarming" and "invasion" used to refer to those seeking asylum in the UK. More recently, in 2020, BBC and Sky News received over 8,000 complaints after broadcasting migrants crossing the English Channel live. Labour MP Zarah Sultana responded: "we should ensure people don't drown crossing the Channel, not film them as if it were some grotesque reality TV show."

'Thus, we argue that the English media's coverage of migrants and refugees in recent years is not only concerning as it is divisive, inflammatory, and inhumane, but that it also contravenes W/Government's stance on migration as a "Nation of Sanctuary".'

This shows, therefore, how the fact that communications and broadcasting are not devolved undermines our ethos and our goals as a nation.

Of course, some things changed in the wake of COVID. In 2020, BBC Wales Today viewing figures increased to 46 per cent of the population, showing that people had realised, for the first time, perhaps, that important issues such as health and education were the responsibility of the Senedd rather than London. The pandemic therefore demonstrated the importance of providing an indigenous Welsh media to provide information to people living in Wales.

Therefore, I cannot overemphasize why today is indeed a very important day as we make further progress in this area, in order to bring all the potential benefits of devolving broadcasting and communications to Wales. If we want more people to take an interest in our democracy, to scrutinise our decisions, and to vote, then they must have the opportunity to be informed about what is happening here.