TRINITY MIRROR AND GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY

That this House deplores the announcement from Trinity Mirror that it will be scrapping eight jobs at the North Wales newspaper, the Daily Post, including its only reporter based at the National Assembly for Wales; notes that the National Assembly for Wales has responsibility for the Welsh NHS, Welsh schools and the Welsh economy and has a significant impact on the daily lives of people across the north of Wales, as well as the rest of the country; believes that effective journalism is intrinsic to democracy and is essential in challenging the powerful and holding public bodies to account; regrets that the people of North Wales will be left without a source of information as to the actions of their government; further notes the words of Thomas Jefferson, found in a letter addressed to the Welsh philosopher Richard Price in 1789, that wherever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government, that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right; and calls on Trinity Mirror to reconsider its decision to relocate the only reporter based in the Senedd and to talk to, and work with, the National Union of Journalists before any decisions are taken.