9. Debate: Broadcasting

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:57 pm on 14 June 2022.

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Photo of Dawn Bowden Dawn Bowden Labour 5:57, 14 June 2022

Diolch, Llywydd. Can I thank all colleagues for their contributions this afternoon? I will try and respond to a number of the points made, but forgive me if I don't cover everything, because there were lots of very good points made, and people making the same points but in different ways.

Can I just start by thanking Tom Giffard for pointing out how the Labour Party is going to take things forward and telling me what the Labour Party's going to do and what it won't do? You seem to know more than I do, so you've got inside info on that, Tom. I don't know where that came from. But can I be absolutely clear? We have set up this expert panel not because we have already made our minds up; we have talked about the direction of travel, but we want this report from the expert panel to be evidence based, and there couldn't be anything clearer than that. In the terms of reference for the panel, we talk about the need for them to be transparent and accountable, for them to talk about the governance arrangements for broadcasting and media in Wales, to look at the funding implications and the ongoing sustainability. The finance and the ongoing sustainability was something that was mentioned by several Members, particularly on the Conservative benches. Gareth Davies mentioned it, as well as Samuel Kurtz.

Heledd Fychan talked about media deficiencies causing gaps in information. She's absolutely right, of course, that that is one of the key areas that we do need to address. Several Members did comment on how the COVID pandemic highlighted that information deficit that we saw, particularly in the delivery of news and public health information. Several Members made the point that that was not just information deficit, it was actually, potentially, very dangerous when we were having people being presented with information that was not relevant to the public health situation here in Wales. Cefin Campbell made a very similar point about that, again about the public health message being delivered.

Jack Sargeant was quite right when he talked about Wales as being a passionate and proud nation. He referenced pêl-droed—and who wouldn't be proud and passionate about football at this moment in time—building on the success of both the men's and women's teams at the moment, and S4C being central to that and us wanting to maintain that. We have a memorandum of understanding with S4C, which is building on the need for us to develop our portrayal of Welsh life, all the cultural aspects of our life and, of course, Welsh sport. And to take up your challenge particularly, Jack, in terms of football being free to view going forward, particularly the national team, I think that is something that you and I are on the same page on, and that is something very much that I think the expert panel will need to be looking at in terms of what regulation we would have in Wales that would allow such important sporting events to be free and available for anybody to watch.