Leading Welsh sports figures have signed a damning letter which accuses the media in Wales of marginalising women.
The letter – which also carries the signatures of the two leading officials at Sport Wales – claims the broadcasters BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C are risking the stature of Welsh sport around the world.
The group includes five-times Paralympic athlete Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson, former Olympic cycling champion Nicole Cooke, former rugby international Non Evans, top international footballer Jess Fishlock, Commonwealth gymnastics champion Frankie Jones, and 2013 world triathlon champion Non Stanford.
The criticism is particularly scathing about BBC Wales’ decision to axe its weekly TV programme, which is also called Sport Wales, and the clickbait culture of many websites.
The letter states: “The recent decision by BBC Cymru Wales to decommission the Sport Wales programme is a further blow to the profile and visibility of women’s sport in Wales. However this forms part of a wider concern relating to overall coverage and visibility of Welsh female athletes and their sports across the Welsh media landscape.”
The letter quotes figures produced by the Women in Sport organisation which claim that only 7% of written sports coverage is about women’s sport – a figure that rises to only 10% in TV coverage.
It adds: “We do not subscribe to the view that there is no appetite for women’s sport or that using data relating to clicks, likes or shares is the sole measurement for whether a piece of content has a worth.”
Laura McAllister, the chair of Sport Wales, is among the signatories, as well the organisation’s chief executive Sarah Powell.
High profile names not on the list include Olympic cyclist Becky James, Jade Jones, the Olympic taekwondo champion of 2012, and Welsh golfers Becky Morgan and Amy Boulden.
The letter in full sent to BBC Wales, ITV Wales, S4C and Media Wales.
7th March 2016
Dear
We are writing to express our concern at the future of media coverage of women athletes and sport in Wales. The recent decision by BBC Cymru Wales to decommission the Sport Wales programme is a further blow to the profile and visibility of women’s sport in Wales. However this forms part of a wider concern relating to overall coverage and visibility of Welsh female athletes and their sports across the Welsh media landscape.
We know from work undertaken by the Women in Sport organisation that despite the success at the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, replicated at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, women’s sport accounted for just 7% of the sport we read about, watch or listen to in the UK and just over 10% of television coverage, which is owed in large part to coverage of women’s tennis. Whilst these figures represent a UK study, we do not believe that they are unrepresentative of the picture in Wales and are deeply concerning.
We recognise the changing way that the public are consuming their news, both current affairs and sport and we do not believe that a move to digital content is incompatible with a greater profile for women’s sport across the digital offer in Wales. Unfortunately what we have seen so far has been a replication of the same sports dominating both digital and mainstream media coverage. We do not subscribe to the view that there is no appetite for women’s sport or that using data relating to clicks, likes or shares is the sole measurement for whether a piece of content has a worth.
We believe that sport plays a special role in Welsh identity. For so long it has defined us on a world stage, through the feats of a wide range of athletes. This heritage should be celebrated and the future World, Olympic and Paralympic champions given the spotlight. We believe that this is at risk if a rebalancing of coverage is not achieved. We have the success, stories and the population in Wales to lead the world in our coverage of women’s sport, it just takes the commitment to do so.
We hope that you will look at taking the necessary steps to structurally support greater promotion of women’s sport in your organisations and across your platforms, including:
- Dedicated leaders for women’s sport that drive editorial in your organisations.
- A defined strategy for the greater profile for our female athletes and their sports on your platforms/publications.
- An increasing number of stories relating to women’s sport and female athletes across radio and non-news television programming, with prominence given to these on all digital platforms and print media.
We hope that by International Women’s Day in 2017 we have seen some real progress in making Wales a beacon for coverage of women’s sport and all the benefits for the nation that comes with that.
Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson
Non Evans (multi-sport)
Anne Ellis (Commonwealth Games Council for Wales and Welsh Sports Association)
Olivia Breen (athletics)
Caroline Spanton (rugby)
Jess Fishlock (football)
Frankie Jones (gymnastics)
Mason Carpenter (cycling)
Jazz Carlin (swimming)
Michaela Breeze (weightlifting)
Anne Adams King (Welsh Cycling CEO and former Olympic swimmer)
Helen Phillips (Commonwealth Games Council for Wales)
Suzy Drane (netball)
Sarah Jones (Welsh Netball CEO)
Sarah Powell (Sport Wales CEO)
Laura McAllister (Chair Sport Wales)
Nicole Cooke (cycling)
Sarah Thomas (hockey)
Jayne Ludlow (football)
Non Stanford (triathlon)