The media was once again made a player in the cut and thrust of politics yesterday as Government Senate Leader David Burch voiced his "amazement" at the level of coverage given to the recently concluded African Diaspora Heritage Trail conference.

The "historic and magnificent" event was "essentially ignored by the media", the Senator told his colleagues before going on to praise the Tourism Department.

While all the Senators, except two, joined him in praising the conference, none spoke in defence of the media.

Editor Bill Zuill responded to Sen Burch's comments immediately after the Senate sitting yesterday.

"I am disappointed that Sen. Burch felt the coverage of the conference was inadequate," he said.

While stressing that he was not speaking for other members of the Island's media, he pointed out that this newspaper had given the conference more "intensive, timely and in-depth coverage" than normal for meetings of a similar length and scope.

"That coverage resulted from hard work from two of our reporters and included front page stories on Thursday last week and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week as well as extensive coverage inside the newspaper.

"I am hard pressed to see how Sen. Burch could have felt that we 'essentially ignored' the conference," said Mr.Zuill.