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SLG
Born Again..........and still Scottish!
Joined: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 5515
Location: Dùn Eideann
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 Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 1:51 pm Post subject: £250,000 funding of Gaelic TV is defended |
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| Quote: | £250,000 funding of Gaelic TV is defended
CATHERINE MacLEOD
Tessa Jowell has defended the government's £250,000 contribution to the new Gaelic television channel, despite the fact that its Welsh counterpart gets £85m annually.
Coinciding with a European Commission visit to Edinburgh today to investigate how Britain is meeting its obligations under the Charter for Minority and Regional Languages, the secretary of state for culture admitted she understood why some critics thought the sum was "paltry".
In November, The Herald reported that Jack McConnell, the first minister, had agreed to contribute £11.5m a year to fund a channel, but Scottish Executive officials revealed that the discussions remained slow.
Ms Jowell embraced the commitment to Gaelic broadcasting nearly two years ago, but she was criticised for allocating only £250,000 to the channel, which is expected to cost around £17m.
In contrast, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport spends £85m annually on S4C, the Welsh language channel.
But Ms Jowell defended what appears to be a glaring anomaly. She said: "I'm sorry if people think it is paltry. I understand why some people do, but I put this money in from my own department as a way of unblocking other commitments.
"Again, all I would say is that the histories are different."
Ms Jowell also said she was "very frustrated" over lack of progress on the Gaelic digital channel and pleaded for efforts to be made for an end-of-year launch. |
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SLG
Born Again..........and still Scottish!
Joined: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 5515
Location: Dùn Eideann
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| Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | MINISTER REFUSES TO ACCEPT FUNDING CASE FOR GAELIC TV CHANNEL
Aberdeen Press & Journal
01 February 2006
Scotland Minister David Cairns was under attack last night after
refusing to accept there is a case for Westminster funding towards
setting up a Gaelic television channel.
He rejected Na h-Eileanan an lar SNP MP Angus MacNeil's claim that a
comparison can be made with the Welsh S4C channel which receives
nearly £86million a year in Government supports.
He said this was a false analogy because it was a Welsh version of
Channel 4.
Mr Cairns did however confirm detailed discussions on setting up
Gaelic TV are now under way.
He added: "I am hopeful these discussions will be resolved soon and I
would certainly hope to see a channel begin broadcasting soon."
He said negotiations had been going on for a long while but added "we
hope this will be sorted out".
He was speaking at the end of a Commons committee debate on a series
of technical orders, one of which allows the new Bord na Gaidhlig,
set up by the Scottish Parliament with legislative powers, to appoint
a representative to the Gaelic Media Service (GMS).
The talks concern how to bridge the funding gap between the
£8.5million a year received by the GMS and the £16.8million estimated
annual cost of a TV channel.
This includes how much in cash or kind may be expected from the BBC.
Meanwhile Mr MacNeil said: "Mr Cairns dodged and avoided the issue.
"The minister was not at all helpful," he added.
"We are not asking for as much funding as S4C.
"We are asking for a lot less, but more than the £125,000 one-off
payment offered by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Broadcasting is a reserved matter and if DCMS want to keep these
powers the Government should pay for them."
Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay urged Westminster to take powers to
support minority languages like Gaelic and Cornish.
Liberal Democrat shadow Scottish secretary John Thurso said he hoped
the Scottish Parliament will increase funding for the GMS at some
point. It is now receiving less than the £9.5million a year under the
last Tory government - to a sufficient amount to achieve its
objectives.
Gaelic language sources have predicted there will be agreement soon
on a station package that will result in a channel being set up
before the start of next year. |
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Abieuan
'Our Scotland' = 2nd Job!
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 481
Location: Carrick
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| Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | He said this was a false analogy because it was a Welsh version of
Channel 4. |
It is actualy David Cairns who is making the false analogy, as only the old analouge version of S4C has anything to do with Ch4.
S4C digital has no connection to Ch4 at all, it's news programmes are provided by the BBC.
The proposed Gaelic channel will also be digital. |
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Maol.Chaluim
'Our Scotland' = 2nd Job!
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 418
Location: Glaschu
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| Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:14 am Post subject: |
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So, in other words, Welsh TV gets 340 times the amount Gaelic gets. "Paltry" is putting it mildly...
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SLG
Born Again..........and still Scottish!
Joined: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 5515
Location: Dùn Eideann
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| Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:47 pm Post subject: |
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| The difference is that Welsh has a very vocal and active loby. Gaelic doesn't. IMO untill the Gaels start getting more active then Westminster will continue to treat them with disdain. |
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Aventinian
'Our Scotland' Fossil
Joined: 10 Dec 2005
Posts: 4276
Location: Broadcasting From An Anonymous Location Within the United Kingdom.
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:27 am Post subject: |
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Welsh is actually spoken as the single language of people. I can understand why it would get more funding.
Either way, this is the sort of nonsense you get when you have governments making laws about culture.
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'Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.' |
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azzuri
'Our Scotland' Fossil
Joined: 12 Sep 2005
Posts: 3777
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| Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:29 am Post subject: |
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.....are you suggesting we have MORE cultural quangos, or just smaller government altogether?
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