Premier Ewart Brown yesterday reiterated his Government's support for public access to information — but again failed to name the date when a draft law will be tabled in parliament.

A press release put out by Dr. Brown's press secretary quoted him as saying: "The people of Bermuda have shown a desire for greater access to information and because they are the ones we serve, we have been committed to this effort since the day it was launched."

It was almost four-and-a-half years ago when then Premier Alex Scott made a promise in his first Throne Speech to bring in PATI.

Two years later, in the summer of 2005, a discussion paper was issued by the Central Policy Unit which stated: "The Government hopes that PATI legislation can be introduced in the House of Assembly within the next 12 to 18 months."

This newspaper launched its A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign at the start of this year urging Government to put draft legislation before MPs in the House of Assembly in 2008. Dr. Brown has since insisted that plans for PATI have never been "derailed, delayed or deferred" but has refused to say when a draft bill will appear.

We asked him again yesterday, via his press secretary, but got no response. The Premier also failed to reply to queries about whether Cabinet has yet seen drafting instructions, why it has taken Government so long to produce the legislation and his views on why Cayman has been able to move so much more swiftly on the matter.

John Barritt, the Opposition's spokesman on legislative reform, said last night that Bermuda could have had draft freedom of information legislation "a long time ago".

"This is just a matter of priority," he said. "The United Bermuda would make it a priority."

Yesterday's press release from the Premier quoted Kurt Tibbetts, Leader of Government Business in Cayman, as praising Bermuda for demonstrating a "commitment" to making a PATI — or freedom of information — law a reality. The Cayman Islands passed such a law last year and Mr. Tibbetts told The Royal Gazette during an interview last month that Bermuda would "do well" to do the same.

The Premier's press release came a few hours after Mr. Tibbetts issued a statement to media here criticising The Royal Gazette. Mr. Tibbetts was interviewed by The Royal Gazette as part of our Sunshine Week coverage to celebrate open government and transparency.

The article noted that Cayman and Bermuda were almost neck and neck in terms of PATI at one stage but that Cayman leapfrogged over the Island by tabling a bill in its Legislative Assembly soon after a public consultation in 2005.

Mr. Tibbetts statement yesterday claimed that the March 20 article juxtaposed his comments about a PATI law being no harder to draft than any other with a claim from Dr. Brown that drafting the bill was a "laborious task".

Mr. Tibbetts said his comments were specifically in relation to Cayman and that he was unaware they would be "used to make a comparison with Bermuda's experience".

Bill Zuill, editor of The Royal Gazette, said yesterday that the Cayman leader was a "little naïve" not to have realised that the two countries' records on freedom of information would be compared. "A full reading of the story we published on March 20 based on an interview with Mr. Tibbetts will show that we in no way suggested or 'created the impression' that the Cayman Islands Government was in conflict with the Bermuda Government on freedom of information," he said.

"What the story did show was that while Bermuda began looking at freedom of information shortly before the Cayman Islands, it has lagged behind since. We also asked Mr. Tibbetts if the passage of the legislation was 'laborious' as Dr. Brown had stated and Mr. Tibbetts replied that it was no more or less than any other legislation.

"We then reported fully and accurately that Mr. Tibbetts said the real work concerned implementation. "For Mr. Tibbetts to claim that his comments were 'juxtaposed' with Dr. Brown's to 'sharply contrast' with Dr. Brown's is ludicrous. We simply laid out the facts."

* What do you think? Has Government dragged its heels over PATI? Email arighttoknow@royalgazette.bm.