Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Veiled threats?
So what exactly is Culture Minister, Alun Pugh trying to say when he combines criticisms of the way that the Western Mail report the Assembly with the news that his Government are reviewing the £3 million a year they spend on advertising with parent company, Trinity Mirror?
A number of Labour AMs have been very critical of the paper recently, complaining that it no longer has a reporter at the Assembly, that it does not cover everything that they think it should and that it shows the Assembly Government in an unfavourable light. If this is the Government's response then it is not very subtle.
The BBC believe that they have got to the bottom of the matter:
Mr Pugh was sacked as a Western Mail columnist in January after claiming opinion formers in Wales regarded the paper as "a bit of a joke".
He made his claim during an assembly culture committee review of newspapers in Wales which recommended that assembly advertising be split more evenly between papers.
With Assembly elections looming next May and the Western Mail growing increasingly more effective in its scrutiny of the Labour Government, this sort of brow-beating will be seen for what it is - a veiled threat to try and get more favourable coverage.
Update: As if to illustrate why Labour Ministers are trying to gag them, the Western Mail carries two articles this morning that once more brings the Government's record into question. In one the Environment Minister is accused of misleading people on opencast policy whilst a second piece alleges that the Enterprise Minister is preventing Assembly Members getting information about his department (no link), contrary to the spirit of openness and accountability that is meant to be WAG's raison d'etre. An Assembly Spokesperson responds by listing the whole range of opportunities that are available to AMs to get information but fails to say what happens if the Minister vetoes the release of certain facts as is alleged here.
A number of Labour AMs have been very critical of the paper recently, complaining that it no longer has a reporter at the Assembly, that it does not cover everything that they think it should and that it shows the Assembly Government in an unfavourable light. If this is the Government's response then it is not very subtle.
The BBC believe that they have got to the bottom of the matter:
Mr Pugh was sacked as a Western Mail columnist in January after claiming opinion formers in Wales regarded the paper as "a bit of a joke".
He made his claim during an assembly culture committee review of newspapers in Wales which recommended that assembly advertising be split more evenly between papers.
With Assembly elections looming next May and the Western Mail growing increasingly more effective in its scrutiny of the Labour Government, this sort of brow-beating will be seen for what it is - a veiled threat to try and get more favourable coverage.
Update: As if to illustrate why Labour Ministers are trying to gag them, the Western Mail carries two articles this morning that once more brings the Government's record into question. In one the Environment Minister is accused of misleading people on opencast policy whilst a second piece alleges that the Enterprise Minister is preventing Assembly Members getting information about his department (no link), contrary to the spirit of openness and accountability that is meant to be WAG's raison d'etre. An Assembly Spokesperson responds by listing the whole range of opportunities that are available to AMs to get information but fails to say what happens if the Minister vetoes the release of certain facts as is alleged here.
