Safeguard public service broadcasting in Wales - Welsh Liberal Democrats

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 29th May 2008

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will today call on the Government to safeguard public service broadcasting in Wales as they hand in their submission to the Assembly Broadcasting committee's inquiry into public service broadcasting.

The submission will outline how to maintain and strengthen the quality of public service broadcasting in Wales as the UK switches fully to digital television by 2012. The submission also calls on the Government to ensure that there is a plurality of Welsh-specific current and consumer affairs programmes across all the public service broadcast providers.

Peter Black, Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Culture and committee member said:

"The Welsh Liberal Democrats believe that high quality television, radio, news and current affairs are essential components of an inclusive democracy. A functioning political system works best if its citizens are informed and one of the primary ways in which many citizens receive this news is through public service broadcast media. As a result, Wales needs to ensure that all its citizens have access to as wide a range of news and current affairs programmes as possible.

"Our submission today will hopefully help shape the way public service broadcasting is delivered in Wales. The recent explosion of new media available for people to access these services means that there are new challenges we have to face and potentially challenging implications at the national and local level. We are delighted to have had this opportunity to air our views.

"A cause of concern for us is the neglect by UK-wide News programmes to cover devolved issues or acknowledge that policy issues differ from this in England or Scotland. A prime example of this was when BBC Question Time's David Dimbleby responded to an Assembly related issue by saying "I don't want to go into Welsh Assembly issues as it won't be understood outside Wales."

"This was unacceptable for the people of Wales as they were filming less than 100 metres away from the Senedd and I hope that this review of public services will enable a healthy and plural media market for the people of Wales and the United Kingdom"