Does this sound like a stitch-up to you? Yesterday the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of MPs met in Westminster to discuss the future of the news you watch on TV - who gets to make it and choose the stories, the journalists who edit it.

I think that's quite important. Particularly if you believe in democracy. Particularly in a part of the UK where democracy has been the most tested and challenged.

Particularly if you believe in a competitive media industry that creates new jobs critical to Northern Ireland's growth. Pretty important, then.

Except, of the two groups offering to make the regional news you watch on Channel 3, only one was actually invited to speak to the committee. You guessed - UTV.

Our very credible group - the Belfast Telegraph, award-winning local production company Below the Radar and our multi -award-achieving digital media group Ten Alps - was not even on the guest list. Why?

We were given no good reason for being kept away. But locked out we were.

You would think that the Committee would at least want to investigate the options for the viewing public by hearing them at first-hand. But they did not.

The only potential bidders the MPs heard from in person were those who've already been providing the service for the past 50 years. This is disgraceful.

Who made that decision and what were they thinking? Who will benefit from such a blatantly one-sided debate The viewer? I don't think so.

Competition always means better quality news and current affairs - and with competition, no longer would UTV have a cosy monopoly of news on Channel 3 in Northern Ireland.

I make no apologies - we want the job because we think we could do it better, more effectively and more interestingly, while creating new jobs and skills.

And at the least, I want an open bidding and consultative process, and may the best bid win. Not this seemingly one-sided farrago. Whether you back our bid to make Northern Ireland news and current affairs or not, it has to be seriously bizarre if the debate is being stifled. And this isn't new.

Earlier this year, the Digital Britain report simply erased Northern Ireland from the map. Few of the major issues in the local television production sector, identified by among others Screen Northern Ireland, were recognised, never mind addressed.

Pilots for the new news and current affairs services are being set up for England, Scotland and Wales - but Northern Ireland is likely to end up with no pilot at all. Which would leave UTV free to continue as it is.

Yet yesterday, Sion Simon, a Minister at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport told the Committee that the Ten Alps/Belfast Telegraph plan for multi-media news provision in Northern Ireland was "bang on" in terms of what the government wants for the future.

He said that it was a shame that Northern Ireland wasn't going to have a pilot because if it did, it would have "a very good one."

Leaving aside my own partisan interest, why did neither Screen Northern Ireland nor the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure feature on the committee's list of interviewees?

Both backed the idea of a news pilot for Northern Ireland. And both were strangely ignored. What's going on, and why?

This is a critical moment in the future of regional media. Advertising-funded TV is under serious threat from the internet.

Local papers are losing advertising and need to go online and on to TV. The public want 24-hour, ultra-local news. The government is keen to fund interesting ways of providing this. Should Northern Ireland be (and be seen to be) part of that process, along with the rest of the UK? Absolutely - yes.

Should the process be open and fair? Yes it should. But is it?