A weekly editor in West Wales has hit out at plans by a local council to launch its own internet TV station.

In a fresh twist in the long-running controversy over local authority publications and media outlets, Carmarthenshire Council, which already runs its own newspaper, plans to spend £30,000 a year setting up the new channel.

Opposition councillors and Welsh Assembly members have already slammed the move as “self promotion” and a “propaganda tool.”

Now Carmarthen Journal editor Cathryn Ings has joined the fray, telling council bosses to leave journalism to the journalists.

“I don’t see this as a direct threat to the newspaper, but obviously I’m concerned because it is another encroachment into the media and into our area of expertise,” she told HTFP.

“We don’t try to run the council, so why are they trying to run TV stations and newspapers?”

Cathryn was also critical of the amount of council taxpayers’ money being spent on the proposed initiative, although the council claims most of it is coming from the assembly.

“They are closing small schools in the area. Wouldn’t this money be better spent keeping them open?” she said.

Camarthenshire Council is not the first local authority to launch its own TV station. A similar move by Kent County Council last year proved equally controversial.

A campaign by the Kent Messenger eventually revealed the £1.4m annual cost of the project.

Comments

Hmmm… (17/09/2009 13:47:54)
Of course, Cathryn doesn’t mention that at least three of the council’s comms staff are fully-trained former journalist colleagues from the South Wales Evening Post!

James Lancaster (17/09/2009 17:01:33)
The biggest threat to local newspapers are the people who own local newspapers. The PR/marketing industry is now as bloated and overstaffed as the regional press used to be because it’s full of ex-journalists. Oh the irony…

Lucy (17/09/2009 17:11:02)
Who on earth would watch that? It sounds unbelievably dull! How can the council justify spending any money on something like that which is really only for its own benefit?

Lucy (17/09/2009 17:11:02)
Who on earth would watch that? It sounds unbelievably dull! How can the council justify spending any money on something like that which is really only for its own benefit?

J (17/09/2009 17:19:07)
I wonder how many viewers that little enterpise will get. Seven a week?

AH (18/09/2009 10:58:03)
J shouldnt crow about low hits for the council site. Levels on local paper websites are, in reality, pathetic, with some lucky to get 1,000 in a week or so for a top story in a circulation area of 200,000 people.
Now that really is a waste of journos time.