PLP voices: Axing Gazette adverts and subscriptions is wrong
By Matthew Taylor
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Former PLP politician: Reginald Burrows.
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Photo Chris Burville
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Government's decision to axe spending with The Royal Gazette has drawn criticism from Progressive Labour Party elder statesman Reginald Burrows who said the decision would hurt Bermudians including fellow party supporters.
And PLP MP Ashfield DeVent also voiced concerns, saying Government is employing the same bogey-man tactic by attacking The Royal Gazette as had been employed by the UBP.
Cabinet decided last month to end the Government's advertising and subscription deals with this newspaper, claiming it was a cost-saving measure. However it continues to place adverts with other print media.
A press release at the time said: "The Cabinet determined it was not cost-effective or penetrative enough to rely heavily on print advertising in an electronically advanced community." However, despite repeated requests the methodology used has never been revealed.
Mr. Burrows, who represented the PLP in Parliament for 37 years, said: "I don't think he should cut off all the advertising. They employ a lot of Bermudians – also probably a lot of them supported the Progressive Labour Party so I don't think that's any good."
Asked why the Premier had taken the decision, which has yet to be fully explained, Mr. Burrows said: "I haven't talked to him so I don't know why he is doing it. It may be a personal vendetta, I really couldn't say.
"I know for many years a lot of the Progressive Labour Party haven't been all that pleased with some of the things The Royal Gazette has done.
"But it has probably changed a bit because the Progressive Labour Party is Government now, although they still criticise them as Government.
"I think The Royal Gazette has changed for the better. I know they try to give a very balanced view of the news. To me it it wasn't always that balanced, but now it is a lot more balanced than it used to be."
And Mr. DeVent, a former Cabinet Minister, said: "I am concerned about Government's approach to The Royal Gazette. In some regards we have become almost similar to the UBP in creating bogey-men, you know, everyone is out to get us.
"I do think historically and even sometimes now The Royal Gazette has been unfair to the PLP but that goes hand in hand with newspapers or the media.
"They are never going to agree or portray one group or the other in a positive light at all times.
"And even if The Royal Gazette has been intentionally trying to portray the PLP one way and the UBP another it obviously hasn't worked in three elections.
"In that regard newspapers and media will print all kinds of stuff but at the end of the day the public has the right to see it and make their own decisions and understandings about what they read or see on television.
"I am beginning to see some change (in The Royal Gazette) and I am someone who works in the media and who keeps a close eye on it."
Mr. DeVent said he agreed with Mr. Burrows that there were Bermudians who worked at The Royal Gazette, the only media organisation in Bermuda to train Bermudians overseas in journalism.
"From my observations it would appear it's mostly Bermudians and, I am happy to see, young Bermudians."
The MP said he was concerned that many of the young Bermudian reporters didn't stay but he conceded many ended up working for Government. He said Government probably paid more money, was more stable and had less stress.
"Government is one of those jobs where you can be there forever and not have the demands and pressures of deadlines. I would think it's not such a stressful and difficult job."
Mr. DeVent said he was particularly upset with the attacks on The Royal Gazette sports editor Adrian Robson made in the House of Assembly.
Mr. Robson endured abuse from MPs from both parties over a joke made in an opinion piece about putting Bermuda's under-19 cricketers on the stop list.
Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess had said: "Mr. Speaker, when anyone comes in this country as Adrian Robson has come, and insults the Premier and a member of this Parliament – he needs to go home.
"I just hope he doesn't have a PRC or status because if he doesn't then we will certainly try to rouse up my young folks to have him out of this country."
Mr. DeVent told this paper: "It was basically an opinion piece and everyone should be free to express their opinion, whether we agree with it or not that's another story.
"But everyone has that right to express it. But to go to the point where you might allude to the fact that you are going to apply pressure to get rid of this person and put him out of the country, I called it childish I see that (Government Senator) Walton Brown called it juvenile - same thing.
"And there are much more important things to be looked at and dealt with and to be discussed on the floor of the House."
Since Government launched its economic boycott of The Royal Gazette two international press bodies have taken up the case.
The Miami-based Inter American Press Association, which represents more than 1,300 print publications, urged Government not to use official advertising as a "weapon of reprisal" against The Royal Gazette.
It wrote to the Premier Ewart Brown to say: "Discrimination in the placement of advertising severely restricts freedom of the press."
The Premier wrote back to the organisation justifying the decision to cut advertising and insisting that the Government was not punishing this newspaper.
Dr. Brown's letter says this newspaper received almost $800,000 in government spending during the last fiscal year and it was "more penetrative" for Government to advertise online, because more than 80 per cent of residents have household Internet access.
However the decision came soon after Home Affairs Minister David Burch said his Ministry no longer subscribed to this newspaper or its sister paper the Mid-Ocean News.
He told ZBM News: "I think my views on both those publications are well known and I see no value as a Minister of Government spending taxpayers' money on purchasing fiction and if people wish to do that people should spend their own 90 cents."
Last week international press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders also highlighted the case. The Stabroek News, in Guyana, which had Government advertising withdrawn for 17 months, and Caribbean NetNews have also highlighted the issue.
