Janet Finch-Saunders:
"In a point made eloquently by our Presiding Officer recently is that Wales is suffering a democratic deficit, whereby the people of Wales, probably without realising it, find themselves quite disenfranchised from the democratic processes of accountability in our political system. In a study by the Institute of Welsh Affairs, it was revealed that some 85% of people in Wales access their media from a London-based source. I know from my own ward that people have their aerials pointing the wrong way, as I often say, to the north-west of England, thereby missing out on fantastic Welsh programmes and picking up English news and channels only. All of this makes it less likely that they are engaged in and informed about matters of crucial importance to them. When the White Paper for Scottish independence was published, that made front-page headlines across the UK. Compare that with the exciting announcement that Wales is to receive further devolution of powers, which was not considered newsworthy enough to grace even the first few pages in the UK media.
"As a fully democratic institution, it is vital that we have an informed public, able to receive and absorb Wales-centric information. We, too, wish to avoid sleepwalking into a situation where news that affects the lives of the people of Wales is not readily available and accessible. We must recognise the innovative contribution of the BBC and other public service broadcasters to our Welsh culture, our Welsh language and the economy. They really are a huge component in Wales, and very important to providing plurality and innovation—BBC Wales, S4C, various radio stations, and the BBC Wales website. The BBC Wales website alone receives over 2.5 million unique visitors every week. I have to say that ITV Wales does it for me—the 'Sharp End' being an excellent example of how they engage and reach out to the audience as regards democratic information and accountability.
"As a group, we strongly believe in the promotion of plurality in the Welsh news media. As identified by the Hargreaves review, maintaining plurality in news provision, in terms of broadcasting and community-based news, will be a vital challenge in the coming years. The review highlighted how the loss of a strong commercial news alternative to the BBC would prove detrimental to news output and the ability to develop our commercial marketing industries. As a member of the Communities, Equality and Local Government Committee, I took part in the task and finish group on the future outlook of the media in Wales. The group felt it vital to preserve the current public service broadcast provisions in the channel 3 licence relating to Wales, and any reduction, it was felt, would have a significant and negative impact on the plurality of public service broadcasting in Wales, echoing the very same views expressed by Professor Hargreaves and the consultation by Ofcom. So, I welcome the fact that, from 2015, there will be a separate Welsh-specific licence for channel 3. A number of respondents to the group stressed the need for the Welsh Government to take a more proactive role in scrutinising and supporting the media in Wales. With further devolution comes the need for further accountability, which can be provided by the presence of a pluralistic media.
"The Welsh Conservatives want to see greater accountability over the public service broadcasting responsibilities of those media outlets that have a significant presence in Wales. We believe that increasing the level of scrutiny will challenge media providers to up their game in providing coverage of Welsh political matters. The same applies to those who access news in the Welsh language. Some 81% of adults who speak Welsh reported watching S4C. Furthermore, 131,000 people in Wales listen to Radio Cymru every month. We should be ensuring that these audiences, too, have access to a plurality of news sources. It is not our intention to remove scrutiny powers from Parliament. Rather, it is to have a complimentary system of scrutiny that enables this Assembly to hold public service broadcasters to greater levels of account against their responsibility to encourage a well-informed public. Wales should have the ability to scrutinise the BBC Trust and the way in which it spends its public service broadcast money. We do not want to pre-empt or over-rule editorial decisions, as a free press is vital to democracy, but the very English-centric focus of the media means that people in Wales are not receiving an adequate return on their licence fee. The Welsh Conservatives want to see the directors or chair of the BBC Trust being held to account before a scrutiny committee of the Assembly. We believe that the renewal of the BBC charter in 2017 provides an excellent opportunity. It is only by securing this that we will increase interest, drive participation and promote true Welsh democracy."