Category Archives: Commentator

BBC licence fee raid ̶̶ The consequences for Wales

cymru_wales 

This blog appeared on 10th July 2015 on the IWA’s clickonwales blog site.

For the second time in five years Government Ministers have backed the BBC into a corner, issued a ‘money or your life’ threat, walked away with a big chunk of the licence fee and left a Director General making as good a public fist of defending ‘the deal’ as he can. Has this been a fair trade between a willing buyer and a willing seller? Continue reading BBC licence fee raid ̶̶ The consequences for Wales

Passion and Policy – Documentary in Wales

 

Doc Heads

On Friday 29th May Documentary Wales/ Dogfen Cymru is holding a symposium in Cardiff:

to discuss the future of documentary film in Wales. Drawing together a range of talent from Wales and beyond, the day will be an opportunity to meet a diverse collection of individuals who share your passion for documentary.  The focus of the day will be on:

  •  Strengthening the community of documentary film makers currently working in Wales
  • Exploring ways of building the audience for documentary film in Wales
  • Discussing future plans for supporting documentary film within the Welsh production sector

Without good policy no social endeavour flourishes as it might. Structures start from policy. Policies are not made by machines but by people and people have beliefs and values and prejudices, all of which can be discussed, debated and shaped into principles on which actions are based. Those actions influence both what is possible in the social sphere and what becomes impossible.

To make Wales a place in which documentary flourishes we need policies which build sound platforms for documentary. That means taking an interest in policy for broadcasting, digital media and cinema – at least. Continue reading Passion and Policy – Documentary in Wales

Crabb Deal on Broadcasting in Wales is not secure yet

See IWA Click on Wales blog page 9th March

Crabb Deal on Broadcasting in Wales is not secure yet

When Stephen Crabb, the Secretary of State for Wales, stood up on 27 February to proclaim a (fragile) cross-party consensus on further powers for Wales, he did so only hours after Ofcom, the media regulator, had closed its consultation on the future of public service broadcasting. Ofcom’s review and the Crabb ‘consensus’ represent potentially important milestones for broadcasting in Wales.

What the premature St. David’s Day agreement (a Sunday announcement was never on the cards) had to say about broadcasting, unsurprisingly, made no headlines, but it laid down an important marker for the coming debate on the BBC’s Charter and for the need to deepen Welsh involvement in media policy. There is a huge amount at stake both for viewers and for our television production industry.

Apparently, all four parties are now agreed on proposals that the IWA has supported and promoted for some years past in various publications, and in the evidence that it submitted to the Silk Commission by the UK’s Changing Union project in which it has been an active partner. It did so again last week in its response to Ofcom’s consultation document.

Mr. Crabb’s Command Paper says there was consensus around the following Silk Commission proposals: Continue reading Crabb Deal on Broadcasting in Wales is not secure yet

Cardiff Media Summit

media summitRuth McElroy

Angela Graham

Glyn Mathias

Rhodri Talfan Davies

The Cardiff Media Summit 3rd December 2014

Panel on the Democratic Deficit in Welsh Media

Ken Skates’s Keynote Speech ‘Finding Wales’s Voice in the Broadcasting Debate’

Rhodri Talfan Davies ‘The Challenge of Reaching Wales’s Citizens’

‘Is the Production of BBC Drama in Cardiff Under Threat?’

At the conclusion of the summit an invitation was issued to anyone keen to contribute to the debate on broadcasting in Wales to attend a meeting at the offices of Ofcom, 2 Caspian Point, Cardiff at 9.30am on 15th January.

The Writers’ Guild

 


Executive Committee Member, Wales
Organiser, The Media and Devolution – what do we need to know?
18th September 2013 Chapter Arts Centre
The Pros and Cons of Devolving Control of the Media to Wales – Speaker: Aled Eirug.
A  Guild Members Only event.
Facilitator of the submission from the Guild in Wales to the Commission on Devolution in Wales (Silk) September 2013
Union Learning Adviser for The Writers’ Guild 2009 – 2014
Identifying and responding to members’ training and development needs. ULA information

Institute of Welsh Affairs Posts

Commentator:        The Institute of Welsh Affairs: News Analysis Online Magazine

 Science on TV in Wales…. When did you last see?

 What Tony said – What Wales replied

Welsh Visibility in the Digital World

Devolution of Broadcasting to the National Assembly 

Welsh Government Response to Future of the Media Report   

Innovative Funding of Documentary Film Research

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and TV

The Story of Wales – the history of History on TV in Wales

Influencing Media Policy in Wales

Pioneering Autonomy in Social Care