- Target:
- UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
- Region:
- GLOBAL
- Website:
- www.saysomethingin.com
Thank, Diolch yn fawr, to all of you who signed and particularly for all the inspring amd heartfelt comments from those to whom S4C represents a link with home and family.
I have closed the petition because the UK Government has announced that after the current finance agreement there will be no further Government grant to S4C. The channel will be financed from the Licence Fee. This makes a petition to Government irrelevant. Any future requests will have to be addressed to the BBC.
We are a group of people learning, re-learning or teaching Cymraeg (Welsh) the language of Cymru (Wales) via the internet. The only TV channel in the world in this language is S4C (Sianel 4 Cymru). The language was the one spoken in Britain when the Romans invaded, and for centuries before.
The total population of Wales is about 3 million and not all speak the language (in fact many have moved in from England and other lands). Finance of the channel came from the British Government in Westminster and a little advertising. Recently, the Treasury changed this so that S4C is financed via the BBC License Fee and the amount given to S4C was cut by 30%. There are plans to cut it by a further 20%. It would not be sustainable to provide a proper menu of programs for the suggested budget.
There are a number of cultural events in Cymru (Wales) covered only by S4C, notably the National Eisteddfod, a festival of poetry, prose, song and dance, art and design held annually.
The UK Government uses audience figures gathered in Wales to judge numbers watching. We use Sky and the Internet, so are not counted. We cannot all see some programs and would subscribe if we could.
We, the undersigned, are all learning or have learned the Welsh language. We all live outside Wales, so are not counted in the audience figures for S4C, which we all want to watch. Some of us have real trouble doing that and are willing to pay a fee! We have heard there is a threat to reduce the channel's budget, despite it already having been cut by 30%.
Please Minister, this is an ancient language, This is the only TV channel in the world which uses it. You value old buildings and history, why not this beautiful language which the ancestors of many in England, Scotland and Ireland spoke, as well as many in the Commonwealth. Surely you do not want to cut the funds to an unsustainable level? After all, it was a Conservative Prime Minister, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, who agreed to the setting up of S4C.
The Non-residents of Wales ask for S4C funding to be maintained petition to UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was written by J Y Comben and is in the category Culture at GoPetition.