3. Will the First Minister make a statement on support for the broadcasting sector in Wales? OQ58389

I thank Hefin David for the question. Of course, the sector plays an important role in informing people here in Wales, and in helping us to create content for our citizens. We support the sector through a range of actions. We work with the sector and help them to resist the proposals of the UK Government in this area.

The Prif Weinidog will be aware of the Plaid Cymru councillor who was pictured holding a gun, threatening to prevent English people from entering Wales, which was reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. [Interruption.] The councillor has been suspended by your party; don't shout 'Come on' at me. He's been suspended by your party. It was reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, and it was Rhiannon James who broke the story for the Caerphilly Observer. That was then shared nationally—it was in The Times, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Sun; it was shared also on the BBC. This demonstrates the importance of local democracy reporting in Wales, and particularly the value of the Caerphilly Observer.

Now, I know there's a task and finish group that's going to be reporting to Dawn Bowden later this year on how we can support further that sector. One of the things I'd like to say just in advance of that is that there are some things the Welsh Government could do, and I would say first of all is ensuring that Welsh Government advertisements are targeted towards those small hyperlocal news agencies, such as the Caerphilly Observer. They would benefit hugely from having Welsh Government ads in them. And also, the £100,000 the Welsh Government has put on the table this year, I think that that could be directed not at the likes of Newsquest or Reach, who already have a national conglomeration; I think it would be better targeted to those hyperlocal people, like the Caerphilly Observer. That's not to pre-empt the task and finish group, but I think that's really important. Can the First Minister just confirm that those views will be taken into account by the Deputy Minister when the time comes?

I thank Hefin David. There are two different sums of money that are available through the Welsh Government. There is the Welsh public interest journalism fund, and nine awards have been made from it already. The Caerphilly Observer was one of the beneficiaries of it, along with organisations like Llanelli Online and Wrexham.com, all of which were very regular participants in the series of news conferences that we held during the COVID crisis and which did a very good job indeed of keeping their readers informed of those hyperlocal issues.

There then is another sum of £100,000, set aside as a result of the co-operation agreement. As Hefin David said, there is a group working on the best way in which that money can be deployed. I know that they are looking at the issue of how, through combining purchasing power, more money from the Welsh Government's advertising budget can be drawn down towards them. The Minister will have heard the remarks that the Member has made this afternoon, and I'm quite sure that they will be conveyed to that working group. And, of course, we look forward to being able to draw properly on their expertise.

First Minister, public service broadcasters are at the heart of the creative economy in Wales, boosting the television production sector, creating jobs and nurturing talent all across Wales and the rest of the UK. Aside from their economic contribution, they bring people together right across our country. Our public service broadcasters come into their own particularly at moments when our nation comes together, as we saw with some of the excellent coverage of the passing and the funeral of Her Majesty over the last week and a half, which, I think, has been a prime example of that. However, the contribution is under threat in an era where tv is increasingly delivered and consumed online, with the risk that global online technology platforms become gatekeepers of PSB programming. Without reform to the current system, UK audiences might struggle to find the PSB content that they value, and large financial sums will be extracted from its ecosystem and the UK creative economy by these online platforms. Therefore, First Minister, while I am aware, as Hefin David referred to, that there is that expert panel that has been set up by your Government to explore the possibility of devolving broadcasting to Wales, given the engagement of people with PSBs over the last week and a half, the concern around online consumption and the potential of audiences struggling to find the PSBs they value, how would you ensure that, if broadcasting were to be devolved to Wales, it would keep the content valued most to the people of Wales?

Surely the greatest threat to public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom comes from the proposals of his Government at Westminster to privatise Channel 4—utterly friendless as proposals and simply ideologically driven by the previous culture Secretary—the failure to find a proper basis for ensuring that funding of the BBC can be guaranteed into the future, and the failure of the UK Government to go out to consultation before the summer, as they promised us they would in June. We're still to see that consultation exercise launched. Now we must hope that the latest Conservative Government at Westminster takes a different view on these matters. Because I agree with what the Member has said: public service broadcasting is absolutely intrinsic to the way in which UK citizens and Welsh citizens are able to receive news that they regard as reliable and which allows them to be properly participating citizens. The big dangers to all of that are the ideological attacks that have been made on public service broadcasting by his friends in Westminster.