AMs call for pounds 25m media authority.

Byline: DANIEL DAVIES

ITV Wales' threatened news output should be safeguarded with public funds, a report demands today.

A new independent commission should be established with a pounds 25m pot of cash to guarantee other Welsh-made programmes on the channel after next year.

Cross-party AMs on the communities and culture committee carried out a five month inquiry into the state of public service broadcasting in Wales.

It calls for a Welsh Media Commission to be created jointly the Welsh and UK governments.

It would take over the role of the regulator Ofcom's advisory panel in Wales and manage a fund for commissioning news and non-news programmes from independent producers.

The pounds 25m fund should be met through a mixture of a levy on non PSB providers, lottery funding and public money from the Welsh and UK governments.

Committee chair Janice Gregory said: "We have seen Welsh programming being slashed on ITV Wales in recent years.

"The situation in Wales is now critical for ITV.

"The committee feels that an independent body, charged with commissioning programmes from independent producers to broadcast on ITV, is the only way to safeguard that tradition of plurality in Welsh broadcasting."