Vexed Bermoothes

A reader sent me the draft Media Council Act 2010 (pdf) that was tabled in the House of Assembly last week. As usual, it is not available on any Government website and has received little public attention, even though it could move to a vote at any time in Parliament.

I believe the Media Council bill is badly written, steeped in political motive, and an affront to freedom of the speech in Bermuda.

Media councils are quite common in the world, and I support the concept for Bermuda. A media council sets standards for media conduct, and arbitrates when people are legitimately wronged by the press.  All good stuff. However, this implementation is flawed for many reasons.

The vast majority of media councils in the world are self-regulatory (in other words, created and run by the media themselves without government meddling). Only a handful of countries – mainly in the developing world and with a reputation for interfering with the free press – have statutory councils as proposed here. Not our crowd, so why are we copying them?

The proposed Media Council will be majority weighted by Government appointees, with insufficient representation from the media itself. Hello political interference!  This “stacking off the deck” alone makes this bill unacceptable.

The bill intends to enforce a Code of Practice, but that code is not included in the law. Seriously, in what world is that acceptable?

The bill will cause large costs for Bermuda’s struggling media but is very vague regarding who will fund those costs.  That’s a recipe for failure.

The bill allows the Media Council to bar publication/broadcast of any story that is subject of a complaint but does not lay out any restrictions. That’s a quick way to muzzle any pending news item no matter its legitimacy. That will lead to manipulation and litigation.

The unnamed Minister gets to decide which members of the media will be regulated. No surprise, the list of regulated media dwells upon the Royal Gazette. It omits many other Bermuda publications and web-only media.

I believe the Media Council bill is in conflict with article 9 of the Bermuda Constitution which gives the right to “receive and impart ideas and information without interference”. This is the right to freedom of expression and is one of the untouchables of most constitutions.  Government efforts that impose on that right are only allowed as long as those actions are “reasonably justifiable in a democratic society.”

Let’s put it this way … no democratic society in the sophisticated circles to which Bermuda aspires has hatchet-job statutory media councils like Dr. Brown is proposing here.

Government should withdraw the bill and support the local media in forming their own self-regulatory council. If passed in its current form, the law will be a disgrace to Bermuda following up on Dr. Brown’s past efforts to muzzle the local media that were struck down in our local courts, our Supreme Court, the Privy Council, and worst of all the court of local public opinion.

Dr. Brown’s past efforts to suppress the media drew much negative attention from the  International Press Institute, Association of Caribbean Media Workers, the Index on Censorship, the UK Press Gazette, Reporters Without Borders, IFEX, the International Freedom of Expression eXchange, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Sunshine Week/ American Society of Newspaper Editors, the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum,  Caribbean Net News, and The Guardian.  Even worse, the escapades have resounded very poorly amongst our international business customers, who don’t want to be associated with chicanery that would be unacceptable in the international marketplace.

Has the public clamoured for this law?  No.  In my opinion, Dr. Brown wants it because the media has questioned his spin.  You have to question the motives.  And ask, do we need another expensive Brownian crusade right now?