The Island's newest television station may find itself in a compromising situation as a result of "special favours" granted to it by Government according to Opposition spokesman for Telecommunications Allan Marshall.

Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb says, however, that her shadow counterpart is making a moot point.

"The fact of the matter is that there was no open process - the Minister of her own volition decided to grant this license and a financial incentive offered," Mr. Marshall said.

"It seems, perhaps without realising it, the Minister had put them in the position of being beholden to Government."

Ms Webb announced on June 24 a decision to allow production company Fresh Creations to use Government's cable channel three. The company, owned by Bermudian Elmore Warren, will broadcast around six hours a day and will be allowed to lease the channel for free for the first year on a trial basis before being required to pay the annual broadcast license fee of more than $14,000.

Mr. Marshall said that, while he appreciated Mr. Warren's work, the deal raises questions of fairness.

"We should all expect some real creative entertainment going forward," he said. "But I am unclear about the process used by the Ministry in granting this license."

The two other stations, ZBM and VSB, who have to now contend with a new competitor, have "very high infrastructure costs as well as the fee they have to pay for their own license", he said.

"The Minister, in my mind, obviously considers this point irrelevant and she's gone out and issued the license free of charge for a year."

He added that there should have been an open tendering process.

And he said the fact that the new channel had effectively been given preferential treatment could compromise its role as a news media.

"We all need to respect the idea that the media needs to be seen to be independent deliverers of news reports to the people. My personal feeling is that no administration, whether the present Government or the next UBP Government should put any media entity in a position of feeling beholden to it for special favours."

Ms Webb said : "First of all it's not a license, it's a trial for one year. He (Mr. Warren) has been issued the use of the channel for one year."

She said that Government still had the channel and an assessment will be done at the end of the trial period to determine whether criteria such as minimum local content are met.

There could be no open tendering process because no license was being given out. Mr. Warren had approached Government with a proposal based on Government's policy of trying to get more local content in the media, she continued.

And she dismissed the charge that Fresh Creations might feel "beholden" to Government.

"Government has two channels. If we decided to broadcast Government information 24 hours a day, we could do it," the Minister said.