In October last year, GB News was banned from the internal TV systems of the Senedd.
The Presiding Officer of the Senedd, a member of Plaid Cymru, has defended this decision, despite the fact that this is nothing short of censorship from a supposed democratic institution.
Now it has been confirmed that this decision has been made permanent by the Senedd.
It’s plain wrong.
For context, throughout Senedd buildings there are televisions, including in Members’ private offices, that can display the full range of terrestrial channels, but have ‘transmission and internet control protocols’ that enable the central admins, the Senedd Commission, to block certain channels.
But while Al Jazeera remains available to all, GB News is banned permanently.
What kind of message does this send to the significant numbers of Welsh people who tune in to GB News every day?
Whatever their spurious reasoning, to make this ban permanent sends exactly the wrong signal after the Senedd suffered such serious reputational damage following the scandal that was Vaughan Gething’s premiership.
After just a few short months in the job, Wales’ Labour First Minister had to resign after losing a Welsh Conservative-tabled confidence motion in the Senedd following Gething’s acceptance of £200,000 from a company run by a convicted criminal.
Incidentally, the UK Labour Party itself received cash from this same donor, so Keir Starmer still has questions to answer on this.
But what is the Senedd’s response to the damage inflicted on it by this scandal?
It extends, indefinitely, its censorship of a legitimate news channel.
This wrongheaded decision needs to be reversed to give elected politicians the ability to watch their news channel of choice on Senedd televisions and that includes Britain’s news channel.
Free speech and the freedom of the press is fundamental.
LATEST OPINION:
Additionally, I have argued that this could well be in breach of equalities legislation.
My concerns remain, as the Senedd is excluding those who are deaf or hard of hearing from making use of the Senedd’s subtitling facilities by only allowing GB News access online.
But chiefly, the people of Wales should have the right to elect who they like to the Senedd, including politicians that regularly watch GB News, like myself.
To deny that basic right to elected representatives, to stay informed through their channel of choice, epitomises the sneering arrogance at the heart of the left-wing political class here in Wales.
The political class needs smashing and the Welsh Conservatives are the only party offering that change in the Senedd.
Source Agencies
