Dangerous

Meic Birtwistle, National Executive Council member for Wales, told delegates Welsh democracy was suffering as the result of a lack of resources for Welsh journalists and London news outlets turning a blind eye to Wales.

“There is a dangerous situation in Wales,” said Birtwistle.

“Our society pays through the lack of representation, our democracy pays in terms of accountability, our journalists in job cuts but we are fighting back.”

Outpost

And Ken Smith, Chair of NUJ Wales Council, said the London media treated Wales as a colonial outpost.

He told us only the News of the World still maintains a journalist to cover Wales out of all the London papers, which had left parts of Wales as an information desert, and the Big Issue Cymru has moved production to Scotland.

Fightback

But Smith, who has lost his own job as a sub-editor at a regional Welsh newspaper in the last year, was ready to try new ways to resurrect Welsh media and democracy.

“We are looking to form an organic local news network in Wales based on a journalists’ co-operative, much like an actors co-op,” he said.

Smith also said any cooperative would be able to offer NUJ rates of pay and give journalists the environment to flourish without the pressure of a organisation obsessed with delivering profits to shareholders.