Channel’s future independence at risk – Cymdeithas
FUNDING arrangements for S4C threaten the independence of the channel, Welsh language campaigners from Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg have warned MPs.
The Welsh Conservative manifesto contained a pledge to “safeguard the funding and editorial independence of S4C” but the activists said the UK Government is not honouring this commitment.
S4C now receives the bulk of its funding from the same licence fee which funds the BBC. Under the terms of the recent spending review, the sum S4C receives from the UK Government is due to fall from £6.7m to £5m by 2020.
Cymdeithas’ Colin Nosworthy said: “It is regrettable and unforgivable because it jeopardises the future of the channel and is a direct blow to the Welsh language. It’s very difficult to interpret it as being anything but a spiteful attack.”
Contrasting it with investment in
Wsport and tourism, he said: “It’s not possible to justify that. It’s very undemocratic what’s being done because it breaks the clear promise in the Conservative manifesto that they would safeguard money for S4C. They are doing totally contrary to that and cutting it. “It’s a very, very serious situation.” Raising concerns about long-term independence, he said: “[What] concerns us is that as the saying goes, he who pays the piper calls the tune. We ELSH Language Commissioner Meri Huws has launched a full-throttle attack on cuts to S4C’s budget and called on people not to accept a service which is not “as good as the best in the world”.
Ms Huws pressed for a “totally different way” of thinking about S4C when she gave evidence to Westminster’s Welsh Affairs committee.
The broadcaster claims it has seen its funding cut by “more than £65m since 2010”, and the contribution from the UK Government will fall from £6.7m to £5m by 2020.
Ms Huws urged the MPs to support investment in the service, arguing that broadcasters have a critical role to play in ensuring that people aged 16-plus continue to use the language.
She said: “We have to make sure that the provision for the three to 15 [age group] remains consistent and robust but what we need to do is make sure that as those young people turn their backs on educa- tion, possibly, and turn their backs on traditional provision that S4C and BBC broadcasts through the medium of Welsh to meet their needs. And those needs are very sophisticated.”
She continued: “We need to invest. There is a need to think in a totally different way about funding S4C in terms of making sure that there are no cuts and moreover that we see it as an investment in the future and make sure that there is an investment over a period of time.
“What we have seen over the past five years has been a cut... That does not create a status and confidence for broadcasting through the medium of Welsh in Wales and that’s what’s needed.”
S4C argues that the 2010 spending review dealt S4C a funding reduction of approximately 36% in real terms. are concerned that the situation in the long-run means that S4C don’t have the adequate independence to operate as an independent broadcaster.”
Committee chairman David Davies said he had not seen “any suggestion that the BBC has tried to have any unfair influence over S4C– no interference at all.”
Conservative culture minister Ed Vaizey last week insisted the Government was “firmly committed to S4C”.
Ms Huws challenged the MPs to oppose cuts, saying: “Why should we accept a service which is not as good as the best in the world? That’s what we’re talking about...
“[This] is the only Welsh language channel in the world. We should be making sure that is of the highest possible standard. So, we are cutting on top of cuts and that’s not acceptable for a service which is vitally important to us.”
She warned that cuts could lead to less content, resulting in more repeats.
After the committee hearing, Ceredigion Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams said: “S4C’s budget has been cut by 36% over the last four years, against a cut to the BBC of 20-25%.
“This is disproportionate by anyone’s standards and has been validated by what the Welsh Language Commissioner [told] us today. The Secretary of State is charged with ensuring adequate funding for S4C, yet successive Secretaries of State have failed in that duty.”