The UK’s The Guardian (whose paper edition attracts over 1.2 million readers per issue) covers the Bermuda Government’s “politically motivated” ad ban on the Royal Gazette in its website section on media freedom.
The Guardian joins a growing list that includes 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, and Caribbean Net News.
Some of my readers think Dr. Brown’s roughing up of the Royal Gazette is justified because they perceive the paper as being hostile to the PLP. That’s a lousy reason, because one day the shoe always lands on the other foot.
Who then gets to choose who gets punished? Who can trust media that is being rewarded for playing along with the PR spin-the-bottle? That’s why international treaties are very clear in forbidding government intervention with freedom of the press, and Bermuda is in the wrong here.
