BBC asked to Stump Up

Letter to BBC Director General regarding programmes made in Wales about Wales:

Dear Lord Hall,

We welcome the acknowledgement in your letter to the First Minister and others on May 12th that there is a growing need to see the full diversity of the UK’s cultures and communities better reflected on screen and on air.

We welcome too the commitment to improve the portrayal of Wales on network television, and note your admission that the funding for English language content made in Wales for a Welsh audience has dropped to “unsustainable levels”.

Further to your commitment to allocate additional funding to spend on improving the BBC’s dedicated services in the Nations it is essential to follow through this policy commitment with firm financial commitments straight away.

As the IWA detailed in their Wales Media Audit last autumn, high-level commitments on improvements in all these areas have been made previously by senior BBC Executives. Indeed, you first raised this issue yourself in Cardiff in April 2014. Over two years has passed since then. It’s no longer good enough to simply acknowledge the problem.

The time has come for you to be specific about how much extra you will invest in Wales.

Yours,

Lee Waters AM

Bethan Jenkins AM

Mike Hedges AM

Suzy Davies AM

Mark Isherwood AM

Angela Burns AM

Jenny Rathbone AM

Vikki Howells AM

Llyr Gruffydd AM

Simon Thomas AM

Hefin David AM

Rhun Ap Iorwerth AM

Jayne Bryant AM

Dawn Bowden AM

Jeremy Miles AM

Eluned Morgan AM

Dai Lloyd AM

David Rees AM

Hannah Blythyn AM

Mick Antoniw AM

Janet Finch – Saunders AM

Joyce Watson AM

Lynne Neagle AM

John Griffiths AM

Ann Jones AM

Nicholas Ramsay AM

Mohammad Asghar AM

Rhianon Passmore AM

Huw Irranca-Davies AM

Neil McEvoy AM

Adam Price AM

Steffan Lewis AM

David Melding AM

Russell George AM

Leanne Wood AM

Paul Davies AM

Nathan Gill AM

Daran Millar AM

Julie Morgan AM

Caroline  Jones AM

Neil Hamilton AM