Page:Note of a meeting held on 21 January 1980 Welsh Language Broadcasting.pdf/1

 NOTE OF A MEETING HELD ON 21 JANUARY 1980

WELSH LANGUAGE BROADCASTING

Present:

The meeting had been arranged at the request of Mr Dafydd Elis Thomas to discuss the Home Secretary's proposals for Welsh language broadcasting on the fourth channel.

2. Mr Morgan thanked the Home Secretary for meeting the delegation and explained that they represented a large body of opinion in Wales, which was firmly in favour of the "fourth channel plan" (ie the concentration of all Welsh language programmes on the fourth channel). Both the Crawford and the Annan Committees recommended this course and Mr Morgan argued that the Conservative Party had also advocated it in their Manifesto for Wales and in The Queen's Speech. Last September, however, the Home Secretary had suddenly announced a change of policy in his speech to the Royal Television Society, and this had been received with considerable disappointment in Wales. Mr Morgan argued that the next 20 years would be of crucial importance for the survival and development of the Welsh language and that Westminster owed a debt to the Welsh people to help save their language. This, he argued, could best be achieved by concentrating all Welsh language programmes on one channel, a solution which Mr Morgan considered would be fair to Welsh and non-Welsh speakers alike.

3. Other members of the delegation reinforced the points made by Mr Morgan. In particular it was argued that many people in Wales had voted for the Conservative Party in the belief that they would institute a Welsh language channel, and it was suggested that if a referendum were held on this subject the majority of the people in Wales would prefer this solution. Radio Cymru, which broadcasts all its Welsh language programmes on one channel, was cited as an example of the success of such an arrangement. It was argued that television had an even greater influence than radio on the public, and in particular on children, and that the survival of the Welsh language would be more easily assured if children were able to watch more Welsh language programmes. The cultural needs of the Welsh people were emphasised and Mr Thomas argued that there was no reason why the arrangements for the fourth channel in Wales should be the same as those throughout the rest of Great Britain: indeed, it was suggested that in Wales there was room for greater /public service input