Plaid: Bleak future for Welsh TV
Hywel Williams, Plaid Cymru spokesperson for culture, media and sport comments on the need for the BC to part-fund S4C in the spending review:
“It is wholly unacceptable that a bleak future for Welsh language television should be cooked up by ruthless and careless Tory and Lib Dem politicians in London and not decided by the people of Wales and their own political representatives.
“It beggars belief that the Welsh government and those charged with running S4C were completely ignored, learning of S4C’s fate from news reports.
“Given that S4C’s public service broadcasting remit goes far beyond any other PSB in the UK, at the very least it should have been treated on the same basis as any other public service broadcaster, retaining its independence, not becoming an inevitably vulnerable appendage of the BBC.
“The Welsh Conservatives told people in Wales that they would not cut the budget of S4C. The truth is that George Osborne has announced a 25 per cent cut ignoring his Welsh supporters’ promises. Their credibility and that of their Lib Dem supporters as defenders of Wales’ interests is clearly and fatally compromised.
“Compare S4C’s fate to Osborne’s other announcements – the London Olympics funding of £9.3 bn will be maintained; there will be capital spending on Tate Modern, the British Museum, and the British Library, all in London, and other budgets, such as Arts Council England and Sport England will be limited to 15%.
“It is clear that there is not a level playing field.”
