Abolish yourself

What I would like the BBC to do is abolish itself. I, as a Welsh speaking woman living in North West Wales, have never felt that the BBC is a service which includes someone from my background. It is very much a middle class British service with its own values. There is not much evidence that they want to include different perspectives in Britain.

This bias has not stopped Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) working for change over decades, with some degree of success. The Welsh Language Society campaigned during the 60s and 70s for more Welsh programmes on the radio and TV. In 1976, Radio Cymru was launched, and it has increased in hours gradually over the years. In 1982, S4C was on air, the Welsh language version of Channel 4. Recently, the BBC took over responsibility for the channel, stripping it of its independence.

Although there has been an increase in hours, content lacks much originality. Apart from one or two exceptions, programmes are re-workings of ideas which have already appeared in English. We are not given a particularly Welsh viewpoint. This is most obvious in news programmes. Every time a different opinion is voiced, there is always a conservative voice (in Welsh) to give ‘the proper balance’.

I have never understood this idea of ‘balance’. If the BBC was truly interested in giving a balanced viewpoint in Britain, then my country would not be caricatured, or my language ignored. I rarely see or hear a programme on the current situation in Scotland or Ireland (The BBC coverage of the Scottish Referendum was disastrous, for Scotland and the Corporation).

So after abolishing the BBC I would establish a federal body that would co-produce programmes in a creative way. English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh Broadcasting Corporations would come together in a Federation, working alongside each other to develop and co-produce new ideas in a relationship of equals.

Is this a pipe-dream? There already exists the Nordvision, which has been co-operating across the five Scandinavian Public Broadcasting Services since 1955. The number of exchanges and co-productions are growing, with a record number of joint programmes produced last year.

Today (2:9:15) an open letter has been sent from the Coalition to Reform the Media in Wales. Six Assembly Members have signed it along with one MP, asking the government to consider cuts to BBC Wales and S4C. They say that the landscape of the media across Britain is being dominated by a handful of big companies that do not represent the people of these islands, especially the communities of Wales and their culture.

It’s time to take things apart and rebuild a better broadcasting service.

Angharad Tomos (@Rwdlian) is a Welsh author and language activist