NEWS outlet Nation.Cymru said today that Hannah Blythyn was not the source of its deleted texts story that led to her sacking from the Welsh government — and accused First Minister Vaughan Gething of lying.
Nation.Cymru’s chief executive Mark Mansfield said Mr Gething had failed to behave with integrity by suggesting he had “incontrovertible evidence” that the former social partnership minister was the source of their story.
He said that following his response on Wednesday to her personal statement to the Senedd, “in this unprecedented situation, the board of Nation.Cymru does not consider we can stand by and see Ms Blythyn’s reputation unjustly besmirched by the First Minister.”
Mr Mansfield said no proper investigation took place before she was dismissed after the First Minister found her “summarily” guilty of leaking information to Nation.Cymru.
The story revealed Mr Gething had told ministerial colleagues he was deleting messages from a group chat because they “could be captured in an FOI” when he was health minister during lockdown.
The publication said it was denying her being its source or having had contact with her about it at any stage due to a strong public interest and out of concern for Ms Blythyn’s wellbeing.
“We can state unequivocally that Mr Gething is not telling the truth when he suggests that he has incontrovertible evidence that Ms Blythyn was our source,” Mr Mansfield said.
He said: “The fact that the discussion related to a ministerial decision about the handling of Covid meant that the iMessages constituted Welsh government business.
“Ministers were already under an obligation to preserve such messages because they were subject to FOI disclosure.
“Subsequently, they should have been disclosed to the UK Covid Inquiry.”
A Welsh government spokesperson said: “An unredacted version of the screenshot sent to the Welsh government by a journalist identified the owner of the phone the screenshot originated from.
“The First Minister has made it repeatedly clear that he is not prepared to release the unredacted version unless all individuals identifiable through the exchanges agree to its release.”
