Review of the Year 2025

As 2025 comes to a close, it’s a moment to pause, reflect and celebrate what our community has built together.  So, whenever I write these reviews of the Inclusive Journalism Cymru year, I look back to what we were hoping for when we first set up the network. We set out to:

• Be member led
• Provide opportunities and support for marginalised journalists at all stages of their careers
• Collaborate with like-minded people and organisations
• Drive systemic change in the industry and society
• Create local, national and international impact

I couldn’t be more proud that – alongside the nearly 400 people who are now members of Inclusive Journalism Cymru – we’ve been able to deliver on those ambitions in ways that we couldn’t have dreamed would be possible.

For that reason, (although it’s traditional to put the thank you’s at the end of pieces like this) I want to start by thanking my co-directors Silvia and Damian for the hard work, commitment and care they show every day, and everything they do to make a difference. None of the work described here would happen if it wasn’t for that.

Our collaboration with the Wales Broadcast Archive, beautifully led by our Network Weaver Heledd Williams, came to fruition this year with three powerful creative responses to material from the archive. We were delighted to showcase the pieces at events in Cardiff, Caernarfon and Aberystwyth where Heledd also curated a lovely selection of workshops and creative activities. 

These events offered a wonderful opportunity to connect with members from across the country, in both English and Cymraeg.Thanks to Heledd, Kayley, Mair and Soma, as well as Ffion Wyn Morris from the Archive, who were brilliant partners on this work.

This was a truly member-led project, and it was lovely to see Heledd create the space not just for three fascinating pieces of work, but also for really rich in-person experiences – which feel increasingly important in these troubled times.

We’ve always tried to run a wide range of events and masterclasses, as a way of bringing members together to connect and learn. These sessions don’t just build skills – they build community.

This year, we’ve been particularly happy to support members to lead a number of their own events – drawing on their skills, knowledge and experience. Our Network Weaver, Kaja Brown, ran masterclasses on environmental writing and networking with neurodivergence, Chloe Lovell led a brilliant features writing workshop and Beth Rees ran a masterclass on neurodivergence in journalism.

We love working with our members on these events – which are always really well attended and attract journalists from all over the world – so if you’d like to run a workshop or masterclass of your own, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re proud that Inclusive Journalism Cymru is helping drive systemic change at both national and international levels, and that others are recognising the importance of our mission. 

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is probably the most important and respected interface between research and practice in journalism and so we were delighted when they got in touch to offer us the opportunity to set up a Fellowship that would be specifically for Wales, and have a particular focus on inclusion, innovation and systemic change.

Our Cynefin Fellow, Sofia Lewis, will spend the beginning of 2026 in Oxford, exploring how journalism in Wales can better represent its audiences – especially through the lens of class. Sofia will examine who shapes the news agenda, how inclusive Welsh journalism is and what a more sustainable, trustworthy and accountable meda could look like for people and communities across Wales.

She’ll be sharing her journey with us, so look out for more in the new year, and we’ll also be working with Sofia after her time in Oxford, to share the results of her research.

This Fellowship is a huge vote of confidence in our country and our members, and genuinely puts Wales at the “top table” of global journalism. We’re grateful to Creative Wales for recognising that importance, and supporting the Fellowship through their Public Interest Journalism Fund. We obviously want the Fellowship to continue, so we’re already working on the fundraising to support that. 

The Creative Wales Journalism Fund is also helping support Newyddion i Bawb, a partnership which also includes Media Cymru, S4C, Common/Wealth, PDR and our community partners in Blaenau Ffestiniog – CellB and Y Dref Werdd.

Together, we’re engaging in deep listening to understand what our communities truly want and need from journalism — with a particular focus on Cymraeg. We believe this is an increasingly important conversation at a time when the whole journalism sector is at a turning point. We hope the insights will help inform journalism that delivers genuine value and serves everyone – not just a privileged few.

The outputs of Newyddion i Bawb will include a podcast and policy paper, and we are working with Creative Wales to ensure that the work has the greatest possible impact in delivering systemic change.

Through our membership of the Public Interest Journalism Working Group, we’ve already worked hard to shift policy towards supporting inclusion and innovation, rather than simply propping up failing business models, and we’ll continue to argue for that.

This year, we’ve also worked with the Public Interest News Foundation on a Co-Creational News Media Toolkit to support more equitable and inclusive journalism and appeared at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, alongside partner networks from across Europe to argue for more radical efforts to embed those principles across the industry.

We know that we’re not going to change the industry (or the world) alone, which is why you’ll see that so much of our work is about partnership and collaboration. We love working with QueerAF and are glad to be supporting a second cohort of emerging LGBTQIA+ journalists. This unique opportunity provides three QueerAF commissions alongside intensive mentoring and co-publishing.

This has led to some brilliant pieces, which you can read on our Blogs page alongside a great range of other writing by our members. Our blogs have become a really valuable resource, both for members and the wider industry, and we’re always really happy to hear from you if you think you’ve got something to say.

My greatest joy from this Inclusive Journalism Cymru year has been having the opportunity – thanks to the work of our brilliant team and Network Weavers – to meet so many of our members at events up and down the country and online. We weren’t sure what to expect at our showcases in Caernarfon and Aberystwyth, or if anyone would come, because the industry remains so Cardiff-centric. So we were thrilled to see such strong support in north and west Wales and to see the appetite for opportunities which might help address that systemic challenge. 

We’ll be building on that work over the next year and hoping to meet even more of you – because that’s really what makes the work we do feel most worthwhile. So, I’m going to finish with some traditional thanks, but this time to you, our members and supporters.

There’s so much more to come in 2026 and we can’t wait to build it with you. Thank you.