Guardian gets it wrong

Yesterday's Guardian leader claimed there is now a Tory councillor in the Rhondda.

No, there isn't.

There is a Tory on RCT, representing Llantwit Fardre.

The Guardian's journalists should get out more.

BBC Tries Harder

Maybe some of the messages we have been giving the BBC hierarchy about the UK network's
failure to get to grips with Britain post-devolution have hit home.

Today on Breakfast News they had Colette Hume from Cardiff explaining the Wales and England teachers' strike, and on two occasions Bill Turnbull was heard to talk about elections for all the Welsh and some of the English councils. In that order. Then they had a report on the Northern Irish economy with Declan.

Of course, it could just be a flash in the pan: sustaining it will be the test.

Rhondda Lives goes live!

Last September, I told the story of how the Rhondda Lives project had come about.

Today Rhondda Lives has gone live and you can see the output here on the BBC Wales website.

The project was launched at Valleys Kids who have run the project in collaboration with BBC Wales's digital story-telling team and the National Library's National Screen and Sound Archive, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

I was delighted to see the wonderful films generated by the story-tellers, and also to welcome the National Librarian, Andrew Green and BBC Wales Head of Strategy Cath Allen to the Rhondda.

We also opened the refurbished vestry in the Soar Ffrwdamos complex and the writer Elaine Morgan did the honours along with Mrs Parry from the Soar Ffrwdamos congregation.

Welcome back Rhys radio

Penrhys based community radio station, Rhys Radio, takes to the air for another month from Monday March 3rd. It follows a successful first broadcast last September. You can find the interview I did last time round here.

Rhys Radio is part of the RCT Community Radio Project (along with Radio CwmNi in Treherbert and Dapper FM in Penywaun) which aims to make Rhondda Cynon Taff the centre of excellence for Community Radio here in Wales. It follows the award of more than £270k funding from the Welsh Assembly Government’s Communities@one programme to fund the project.

Communities @One aims to help people in Communities First areas make the most of new technology. The programme is jointly funded through the European Union’s Objective 1 & 2 programme and the Welsh Assembly Government. Communities @One is administered by the Wales Co-Operative Centre.

Radio Cwmni

A warm welcome back to Treherbert's Radio Cwmni, the Rhondda's first dedicated community radio station, which goes back on air today for 4 weeks. The station broadcasts on 87.8FM in the Upper Rhondda Fawr and will also stream live on the internet. The broadcasts are funded by the Assembly Government's Communities@one programme.

You can't have e-democracy without e-inclusion

I spoke at the OFCOM/NIACE Dysgu Cymru E-Democracy conference yesterday, with a significant focus on the Welsh Assembly Government-supported Communities At One programme. My theme was You can't have e-democracy without e-inclusion.

Mediasnackers has a write-up. I will post more on this in due course.

Facebook

I explained in December why I had finally succumbed and gone on Facebook.

The South Wales Echo has now done an article about some of the AMs on Facebook (though the headline calls us MPs), written by Ben Glaze, who is, er, on Facebook.

Like a few other Trinity Mirror journalists I could name!

We're watching you too guys....

Combatting digital exclusion

My introductory video for the Commuities@one website has now been posted up. Communities@One is the Assembly-supported scheme to tackle digital exclusion.

Getting People Online

Today wearing my Ministerial hat I launched the new Communities@One website.

Communities@one is the Assembly's scheme that helps people use technology in the communities that need it most in Wales. The project provides support to community groups and voluntary sector organizations to engage with technologies in ways relevant to their lives. It includes a grant fund to help groups access technologies. The project is managed for us by the Wales Co-op. It is one of our approaches to tackling digital exclusion.

The Communities@one website also has a blog written by the Assembly-funded community brokers who work for the scheme.

Facebook

I felt too many politicians were joining Facebook so I refrained from doing so. However, there is now a Cardiff City Fans Facebook group so I have finally joined.

Also Chris Bryant MP has a useful Transform the Rhondda discussion group there too.

By the way, is it rude to poke?

BBC Trust review

If the BBC Trust is serious about reviewing coverage of the devolved nations on the BBC's UK news network then I welcome it.

The dominance of a metropolitan agenda is the problem rather than an English bias. But it means that the BBC fails to reflect the real diversity of the UK. Too often coverage of Wales is about 'quirky' issues rather than a real engagement of life in post-devolution Britain.

ITN is worse. And the London newspapers are as bad, of course. All of them, without exception.

But the BBC should be the benchmark. It has invested internally in training its journalists at regular intervals about the differences in the UK - eg in health and education - but the reality that appears on screen in the context of breaking news takes England as the norm - eg primary care trusts not local health boards - and too often fails to clarify when Whitehall initiatives apply only to England.

I have written before about this of course - not least on Blogging the Beeb, the blog I set up when I was starting the research for the book on the BBC and Britishness I am still writing....slowly.

Debate on Welsh Broadcasting

My Rhondda colleague Chris Bryant MP has launched an important debate on the future of broadcasting in Wales. His pamphlet can be found on the interactive website he has launched here.

Rhys Radio

I was interviewed recently on Rhys Radio, the new community radio station for Penrhys. You can listen to the interview here.

Rhys Radio

I went up to Penrhys yesterday to record an interview with Wayne Carter which should be broadcast on Monday.

By all acounts, the station is being well-received by the community. This is a project funded by the Assembly's Communities@one project.

Congratulations to all involved.

Ten Years On (4)

ITV Wales has put up on its site its compilation video of the 1997 Referendum night. View it here.

Some familar faces....

Rachel's new website

Rhondda's award-winning author Rachel Tresize has a new website. Check it out here.

Rhys Radio

I was away when it launched, so just a word of welcome to Rhys Radio, the second experimental radio station to have operated in the Rhondda this year, in collaboration with GTFM, and funded by the Assembly. It follows on from Radio Cwmni.

Tune in on 87.7 FM for live chat, music, live bands, local news and what's on in Penrhys and the surrounding areas.

Rhondda Radio

As I said last month, we would soon have our own Radio Station (s) in the Rhondda, and Radio Cwmni started up in Treherbert this morning on 87.8 FM. I could hear it all the way down to Trealaw - the signal started to fade at the Colliers, and then seemed to disappear by the Royal. It was great to see the name digitally displayed on my car radio.


The project is funded by the Assembly's Communities@One programme, and Penrhys will follow next. GTFM has been the springboard for the new stations, and Andrew Jones, the former Managing Director of GTFM is putting it all together, with Julie Barton, former Editor of Radio Wales involved in training the presenters. Andrew Routledge, who interviewed me on air this morning, had never been in a radio studio two weeks ago.

I was pleased to take part in the opening of the station and I wish it well for its month on air.

BBC Editors visit

The BBC brought some of their London editors to the Assembly for a visit yesterday. I commend them for having done that , and I had a couple of useful chats with people such as the 1.00 and 6.00 news editor about coverage. I am glad that the BBC's College of Journalism will shortly be circulating a DVD about common gaffes made by BBC network news programmes in their coverage of the UK in the post-devolution world.

However, I noticed that quite a few of those from London seemed to be more interested in chatting to other London people about things they could presumably have been chatting about in London, such as the UK Labour leadership....

Decline of the Labour Editor updated

Peter Wilby had an interesting piece yesterday in the Guardian about the decline of the Labour Editor, on the basis that the last surviving Labour Editor, Barrie Clement of the Indie, may be retiring.

I don't know if Barrie is going, but I'd like to use this opportunity to thank him for his support for the Burberry campaign. he was the first UK newspaper journalist to write a serious story about the campaign, and he did so before Ioan Gruffudd came on board.

Barrie is from South Wales originally, and we met him down here to discuss the campaign. He's given regular coverage since, most lately yesterday.

Tom Livingstone tells me not to forget Alan Jones PA's Industrial Correspondent - as if I could, he's also been a great help - and he's Welsh too!