More trouble in paradise for the staff of Bermuda’s Royal Gazette and its sister newspaper, the Mid-Ocean News, after premier Ewart Brown bizarrely responded to their campaign for more government transparency and a freedom of information law — by trying to cut their access to government spokesmen.
Brown has ordered communications officers at the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Tourism and Transport to “reduce their contact” with the papers. Without apparent irony, Brown declared: “This step has been taken in order to prevent a total breakdown of communication between the Premier’s office and these publications.”
Ludicrous as the strategy reads, it’s seen as further evidence of Brown’s frustration at the failure of his bid to silence the papers’ criticism by stopping their state advertising and subscription deals in March 2008.
This kind of ‘soft censorship’ is common across the Americas and the Caribbean, and roundly condemned by press freedom activists and by constitutional lawyers.
“Government discrimination in the placement of advertising is an act of indirect coercion that is contrary to freedom of speech,” ruled Argentina’s Supreme Court when seeing off a similar bid by a provincial government to block a critical paper. Mexican president Felipe Calderón’s team was marked down last year for using the same tactics on the political magazines Processo and La Tijerata, among others.
It’s a slow-burning strategy that doesn’t always work, even if the courts don’t stand up for free expression rights. On the other side of the Caribbean, the Guyanese government banned state advertising in the leading private daily Stabroek News for 17 months before giving up the boycott under domestic and international pressure.
And with the Bermuda Royal Gazette citing an independent 2008 survey that found their print and online versions reached almost 90 percent of the island’s adult population, the government may be censoring its own messages to the public.
Editor Tim Hodgson of the Mid-Ocean News commented in an editorial that Brown’s decision to cut his already limited contacts with the paper “is entirely of a piece with his decision to introduce personal loyalty oaths for Cabinet Ministers — yet another aggressive demand for uncritical acceptance and unquestioning obedience.”
One answer may lie in the model adopted in Cartagena, Colombia, reported Don Podesta of the Centre for International Media Assistance in Washington. There newly-elected mayor Judith Pinedo set up a committee to regulate government advertising and distribute it with greater transparency and fairness.
In the meantime, premier Brown’s mean-minded strategy will not cow Royal Gazette editor Bill Zuill. “We will continue to submit questions to Government on matters of public importance,” he wrote last week. “When they are not answered, we will publish the questions so that the public will know we are simply trying to find out the truth on their behalf.”
7 Comments
Bermuda has been turned into a banana republic under the PLP ,with Brown’s Mickey Mouse Dictatorship
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the ROYAL gazette was never the “paper of the people” never will be
the royal gazette has never been about repping the interests of the avg. bdan – it is a money making venture with the added bonus of being the media arm for a very anti plp/anti labour pov. there is a reason that the staff is made up of white brits as opposed to a melange of writers from the US and the caribbean – a group who would have a better understanding of the nuances of bda.
THe ROYAL gazette is one of the the last bastions of colonial rule – the name and insignia of the paper says it all. the last gasping dregs of a bygone colonial era tries to live on in articles that talk as if it’s still the 1950s.
Free speech is commendable. However in the case of the gazette in Bermuda it is the newspaper who has been the obstacle to free speech. by speaking to everyday people one can see that the gazette has never adhered to any concept of journalistic integrity. it’s also being quite hypocritical recently in it’s “all of a sudden” interest in the support of caribbean newspapers (in regards to PATI) considering that the gazette has always and purposely avoided even the idea of bermuda being considered a part of the caribbean not to mention that it rarely if ever covers caribbean news unless it’s negative.
and in re; to govt. axing of it’s ads – the rg itself admitted that it did not even attempt to be competitive in bidding for the govt. contract- that’s just bad business – and the rg is in the business of making money – it’s not a public trust – why should taxpayer money go to a company that takes it’s revenue streams for granted – is it fair that any company take govt. contracts for granted – that smacks of nepotism – in this day and age where newspapers, record companies and tv broadcasters are no longer the key way in which the world recieves info and entertainment it is imperative that these companies do more instead of less – i think that the premier’s response said it all – i live in canada, and i don’t believe that any of the daily newspapers take any revenue stream for granted – the rg did and it paid for it – sounds like business to me.
and there is a reason why there has been no major public outcry over this action – that speaks volume about the situation – after all it is the public’s money – and if they felt strongly about this they would be up in arms and showing support for the paper – nothing doing – so if the people of the country whose interest the rg is supposedly representing see nothing wrong with this govt, action – and it’s the people’s money that we’re talking about – isn’t that democracy?
gazette editor Bill Zuill is the latest in a long line of anti labour/ anti plp editors (in the 1940s editor ss toddings refused to refer to labour leader dr. gordon as DR – much the way that zuill is refusing to reveal that dr. brown’s son is a medical DR in their biased coverage of the playboy fundraiser)
zuill is also being disingenuous at best when he suggests that the the people of bermuda and it’s govt. are somehow playing payback because of his papers push for transparency (something I might add that he never pushed for during the white govt. reign)
- the truth is that the gazette is behaving no different than the atlanta dailies did during MLK jr.’s time – back then those papers where often used to suppress rather than enlighten – they only reported on MLK’s shortcoming while refusing to write about his positives like his receiving the nobel prize – as I said the Rg has historically been the voice of the minority racist elite and it still is – unfortunately it has now used something as noble as sunshine week to continue it’s vendetta.
finally – if in the early years of the mandela and the ANC rule in south africa, that govt. ceased to give ad contracts to a paper that was created during apartheid soley to rep the interests of the small white minority – could u blame mandela and the anc?
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