Take part in a virtual town hall meeting to discuss how the Welsh media industry can survive the pandemic and then reboot itself putting public interest journalism at its heart.
The NUJ has published a news recovery plan (https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/nuj-launches-news-recovery-plan/). The NUJ’s Welsh Executive Council together with NUJ Training Wales is holding an event with Lee Waters MS, deputy minister for economy and transport, media experts and activists to look at how it can be adapted for Wales. Includes Q&A with the panel.
Speakers:
Michelle Stanistreet is NUJ general secretary and member of the TUC’s executive committee. She worked as a journalist for 10 years at the Sunday Express newspaper as feature writer and books editor and was NUJ mother of the chapel at Express Newspapers, as well as the national representative for newspapers and agencies on the NUJ’s ruling NEC.
Michael Sheen, actor and local news activist. Best known as a stage and film actor, portraying Tony Blair in Tony Blair in The Queen and The Deal and David Frost in David Frost in Frost/Nixon, he is an ambassador for the Dylan Thomas Prize and vice-president of Port Talbot Town FC. He is a passionate advocate of quality local journalism and has been working on solutions for the sector in collaboration with journalists, media academics, Cardiff University and the Centre for Community Journalism.
Lee Waters, deputy minister for economy and transport, is the Welsh Labour and Co-operative Member of the National Assembly for Wales for the Llanelli constituency. Before being elected in May 2016, he was director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs think tank. He is a former chief political correspondent of ITV Wales.
Dr Ifan Morgan Jones is a lecturer in Journalism in Bangor University’s department of creative studies and media. He has worked as deputy editor for the Welsh magazine Golwg and as an editor of the news website Golwg 360. He is currently editor of the news and current affairs website Nation.Cymru. His novel Igam Ogam won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize in the National Eisteddfod in 2008.
Louise Elliott is Programme and Digital Editor at ITV Cymru Wales. Louise grew up on Anglesey and started her career in journalism in the newsroom of the Bangor Chronicle. Louise worked in regional newspapers in Wales and the north-west of England for ten years before she was given her first break in broadcasting by HTV Wales in 1996. She has also worked at the BBC, as a journalist and presenter on TV and radio.
The News Recovery Plans call for:
• A levy on the tech giants to fund public interest journalism.
• An arm’s length government-funded journalism foundation to finance new models in the media and improve media plurality. All grants would be on condition of improving diversity in the newsroom.
• Newspapers to become community assets. Local groups should have the first chance of taking over their local newspaper if it is shut down.
• A package of tax credits, including Jobs for Journalists – so the money directly funds public interest journalism and is not syphoned off by shareholders — and advertising breaks.
• Strategic investment in government advertising including the hyperlocal sector.
• As election time beckons, media literacy is vital especially for first-time voters. The Welsh government should fund a voucher scheme to subsidise a subscription to a news or current affairs publication for all 16-18 year olds.
News Recovery Plan: https://www.nuj.org.uk/campaigns/news-recovery-plan/
NUJ briefing on the impact of Covid-19 on the Welsh media/Cyfarwyddyd gan yr NUJ ar effaith Covid-19 ar y cyfryngau yng Nghymru:
https://www.nuj.org.uk/documents/nuj-briefing-on-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-the-welsh/