Government figures and media professionals in Wales are set to debate the country’s contribution to spheres such as politics, sport and creative thinking as part of the Society’s Virtual Conference for 2020.
Taking place on the evening of Monday 16 November, the ‘Size of Wales’ discussion will hear from leading figures including the Welsh Parliament’s Media Committee chair Helen Mary Jones and Ashok Ahir, Deputy Director, Cabinet Office Communications and until recently the Director of Communications for the UK Government in Wales.
Helen Mary is the current chair of the Senedd’s Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee and Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Minister for Economy, Tackling Poverty, and Transport. Re-elected to the National Assembly in August 2018, she is the Assembly Member for Mid and West having previously served in the National Assembly between 1999 and 2011.
Ashok, meanwhile, is a former BBC programme-maker and editor and now works at a senior level in government communications. For more than a decade he was Executive Editor, Politics at BBC Cymru Wales and until recently he was Director of Communications for the UK Government in Wales and is currently working on major communications projects for the Cabinet Office.
The session will be chaired by former WalesOnline editor Ceri Gould now Editorial Revenue Director of Reach plc and will also hear from award-winning Welsh journalist Carolyn Hitt and Paul Rowland, Audience and Content Director, Media Wales.
Carolyn began her career on The Western Mail – where she became Features Editor – before switching to broadcasting. In 2012 she co-founded the all-woman production company Parasol Media and continues to balance broadcasting with a freelance career.
Paul Rowland, meanwhile, is audience and content director for Media Wales, overseeing the company’s Welsh titles, including WalesOnline, the Western Mail, South Wales Echo and South Wales Evening Post, and is also responsible for a range of strategic projects across Reach’s UK-wide digital portfolio.
Ian Murray, Executive Director of the Society of Editors said that with the Welsh Government currently leading on its own ‘firebreak’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was only right that the conference looked at Wales’ contribution to many spheres as separate to the UK more widely.
He said: “When being ‘like Wales’ is used as a threat by the US President and Covid is seeing different approaches taken by Whitehall and the Welsh government to tackling the pandemic, it is only right that, as part of the Society’s debates in the nations and regions, we look at Wales’ position as separate to the UK. Alongside its media contribution, we want to hear about whether it punches above or below its weight in many spheres such as sport, politics and creative thinking?”
Registration for the free event is now open and will take place at 6pm on Monday 16th November via Crowdcast. The discussion comes as part of the Society’s Virtual Conference for 2020 which will include four In Discussion with… keynote talks as well as eight panel debates held virtually over the course of November and early December.
The In Discussion with…series will hear from Kamal Ahmed, Editorial Director of BBC News, Rachel Corp, newly appointed editor of ITV News and the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett of Maldon. Details of how to register for all the debates and talks are available here.
Speaker biographies appear below.
Chair: Ceri Gould, Editorial Revenue Director, Reach plc
Ceri is the Editorial Revenue Director for Reach Plc. She started her career on her local paper, the Glamorgan Gazette, discovering no better training ground than reporting on the community you’re a part of. Her career took her to the Western Mail, Wales On Sunday culminating in editing WalesOnline before moving to London to become Editor-in-Chief of the South East and Cambridge region. Her present role draws on all her journalistics know-how and ability to think like a reader in order to navigate new, creative ways of funding journalism in these most taxing of times.
Ashok Ahir, Deputy Director, Cabinet Office Communications
Ashok is a former BBC programme-maker and editor and now works at a senior level in government communications. For more than a decade he was Executive Editor, Politics at BBC Cymru Wales, leading a large team of reporters and programme-makers covering events in Cardiff Bay, Westminster and Brussels.
Until recently he was Director of Communications for the UK Government in Wales and is currently working on major communications projects for the Cabinet Office.
He is Chair of the National Eisteddfod’s Management Board, a board member at Sport Wales and sits on the British Council’s Wales Advisory Committee.
Carolyn Hitt, Freelance Journalist and Co-Founder, Parasol Media
An award-winning journalist, Carolyn began her career on The Western Mail – where she became Features Editor – before switching to broadcasting. In 2012 she co-founded the all-woman production company Parasol Media. Carolyn has presented programmes for BBC1, BBC2, BBC Wales, ITV Wales, Radio 4 and Radio Wales and as a Bafta-nominated producer has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry. She combines the broadcasting day job with a freelance writing career. She has written for The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and has been a weekly columnist for The Western Mail for more than 25 years. In June 2020 she won Columnist of the Year at the Society of Editors UK Regional Press Awards for the third year running. Carolyn has a particular passion for rugby and has written two books and made numerous programmes on the subject.
Helen Mary Jones MS, Chair, Media Committee, Welsh Parliament
Current chair of the Senedd’s Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee, Helen Mary is also Plaid Cymru’s Shadow Minister for Economy, Tackling Poverty, and Transport. Re-elected to the National Assembly in August 2018, she is the Assembly Member for Mid and West having previously served in the National Assembly between 1999 and 2011. She most recently worked as the deputy director of the Morgan Academy at Swansea University. A former Senior Development Manager with the Equal Opportunities Commission in Wales, she has served as Shadow Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning, and a member of the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee, the Equality of Opportunity Committee, the South West Wales Regional Committee and as a member of the Voluntary Sector Partnership.
Paul Rowland, Audience and Content Director, Media Wales
Paul is audience and content director for Media Wales, overseeing the company’s Welsh titles, including WalesOnline, the Western Mail, South Wales Echo and South Wales Evening Post, and is also responsible for a range of strategic projects across Reach’s UK-wide digital portfolio. Paul has worked for Media Wales since joining the Western Mail as a trainee news reporter in 2005, becoming editor of WalesOnline in March 2016. Paul was promoted to the role of editor-in-chief in May 2016 and has led the development of publishing operations across Media Wales’ Cardiff and Swansea newsrooms following the merger between Reach plc and Local World. He has been named by the NCTJ on a list of the UK’s most respected journalists.
