[Community Television] Scottish Parliament supports Community Media

[Alan Fransman]

Scottish Parliament supports Community Media

The Scottish Parliament took an unprecedented stance in support of 
Community Media in a special debate on Local Television yesterday.

The debate was tabled by Linda Fabiani, Scottish National Party MSP for 
Central Scotland.  Linda Fabiani tabled the debate after an inspiring 
visit to Thistle Television in Lanarkshire, the only local television 
station in Scotland.

The Motion debated was as follows:

"That the Parliament congratulates Thistle Television, the only local 
television station in Scotland, on commencing local television 
broadcasting throughout Lanarkshire with a potential audience of 400,000 
local people; welcomes Thistle Television as a valuable addition to 
local media networks and creative employment, and looks forward to its 
contribution to local business, culture, education, and community 
involvement."

As the debate developed, MSPs in the chamber made a number of supportive 
statements about Thistle Television, CMA Scotland and the contribution 
that Local and Community Television makes to society.  Frank McAveety, 
the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport also participated in this 
session.

Here is a selection of statements from this session that will be 
incredibly useful for the Community Media campaign over the next few 
months:

"Community television can provide educational opportunities--local 
authority initiatives or projects involving local schools and colleges 
can be highlighted, promoted and supported via the local TV station. 
Community groups can have a conduit for their activities and community 
issues and campaigns can be highlighted"
Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP)

"Local TV can and does offer the opportunity for local people, 
particularly young people, to learn a trade in the media 
industry--Thistle Television is already showing how that can work. Young 
people can use work experience or volunteering to assess whether the 
media would be a career choice for them as front-line reporters and 
presenters, technicians, writers, producers, editors, camera operators 
and a host of other jobs that we do not know anything about. Local TV 
gives people a fantastic chance to learn about an important 
communications medium from top to bottom"
Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP)

"I have a few concerns. The first relates to the funding of local TV 
stations. Under the Communications Act 2003, we now have the community 
media fund. However, the value of that fund has dropped dramatically 
from the initial proposal of £25 million, through a revised proposal of 
£6 million, to reach the current figure of £500,000. Most of that money 
is likely to go to community radio."
Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP)

"CMA Scotland--the Community Media Association--is currently undertaking 
an audit of media access in Scotland for the media access project 
Scotland, which is funded by Scottish Screen. I ask the minister to note 
the results of that audit and to work with the CMA to open up more 
opportunities for community media."
Chris Ballance (South of Scotland) (Green)

"...the Executive recognises that a number of important issues have been 
raised by the Community Media Association, which Chris Ballance 
mentioned. That is why we have been supportive of the CMA through 
Scottish Screen and of working in partnership with Scottish Screen to 
consider, through the screen industries, how we can develop a much more 
effective community media strategy than there has been to date. We 
welcome such an opportunity."
The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport (Mr Frank McAveety)

A full transcript of the debate is available on the Scottish Parliament 
website:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/plenary/or-04/sor0520-02.htm#Col8727

The Community Media Association would like to congratulate Thistle 
Television on commencing its broadcast and making an important political 
intervention for Community Media in Scotland and for the UK Community 
Media sector as a whole.