Wales wants greater control over broadcasting, but the details seem like a turn off

Wales wants independence…or at least that’s what Plaid Cymru wants you to hear.

Having just recently come back from a trip to Wales, I can say with some confidence that Wales definitely couldn’t survive as an independent nation. It’s pretty rough out there, I always feel sorry for young people growing up there - it must suck.

Ironically, the area of Wales I was in is the heartland of Welsh language. It just recently hosted the Youth Eisteddfod and almost everyone there can speak the language to some extent. Whether that has any relation to the poverty rate, I’m not sure.

Wales currently has just one TV channel of its own, S4C. It has served the Welsh speaking community faithfully for almost 45 years. Technically an independent service, but almost every internal service bar programme making is provided by the BBC. That wound up a lot of people a few years ago when the Corporation was accused of plotting to take over S4C.

Now the Welsh Government run by Plaid is taking things a step further with plans to set up a Shadow Broadcasting and Communications Authority for Wales, taking control of the media directly into Government hands. Exact details are still being worked out about how this supposed Authority will operate and how it could potentially operate in tandem with Ofcom, or possibly even overrule it.

That sounds pretty authoritarian, and it absolutely is. It seems like a drastic solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist. The Welsh language is important, yes, but hardly anyone speaks it south of Aberystwyth.

Heledd Fychan MS, Minister for Culture and Sport, insists that Welsh media is being left in the cold and only full devolution of the media can solve it: “I note the concerns expressed by some Members regarding the need for a Shadow Broadcasting and Communications Authority for Wales. These plans have not been developed in isolation. They are based on evidence that a UK-wide framework for broadcasting does not cater to the realities of how a devolved UK operates. The Welsh Government is not a lone voice. We have heard calls from organisations such as the Institute of Welsh Affairs and through the work of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales that we need a strengthened voice for Wales on broadcasting and communications matters.”

The best thing to do would be to launch a whole new public broadcaster for Wales. One that isn’t tied to any third parties and is fully responsible for its output and funding. Creating a whole authoritative body for everything seems unnecessary and quite dystopian really.

Scotland has a genuine claim for independence, Wales does not. Plaid should be spending its time dealing with the real issues effecting its electorate rather than stoking pointless culture wars with the rest of the UK.