Lawyers for Bermuda's media appeared in London yesterday in an attempt to persuade the Privy Council to hear an appeal on the gag order preventing the media from reporting on the leaked Police dossier into the BHC investigation as soon as possible.

The Bermuda Government took legal action last month to prevent all Bermudian media from reporting on any new information from the leaked dossier, which names several Cabinet Ministers including the Premier throughout the course of the investigation.

Two Bermudian courts have already ruled against the injunction. The Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police appealed to the Privy Council against the decision, however due to a summer recess, the Privy Council will not hear the appeal until October 29. In the meantime a temporary injunction remains in place.

Yesterday QC Saul Froomkin, acting for the Mid-Ocean News and , argued that with a general election "imminent", the Bermudian electorate had a right to know as much as possible of what was in the dossier.

He himself did not know what it contained, he admitted. "It's unknown what material is yet to come".

"I don't know (what information is contained in the Police files), I haven't been told," he said, adding that his client no longer had access to the 1,000-plus pages.

"It is the belief (of the defendants) that an election is imminent," he told the Privy Council.

"These are serious allegations regarding the conduct of members of the Government of Bermuda," he said. "In a matter like this, where the Government's integrity is being attacked, the public has a right to know before an election."

However QC James Guthrie, acting for the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General, said there was nothing to substantiate the claim that Premier Ewart Brown was attempting to delay the hearing in order to hold a general election before the contents of the files became public knowledge.

Using the election to force the Privy Council to hear the appeal during its summer vacation was "unfair", he said, adding that it had never been raised before yesterday's hearing.

He also noted that none of the Bermuda Government's legal team would be available for the first three weeks of August.

The Privy Council was unpersuaded by Mr. Froomkin's arguments, leaving the date for the hearing at October 29. They did however agree that the hearing need take no longer than one day.

Mr. Froomkin was representing Bermuda Press Holdings, Ltd which owns and its sister paper, the Mid-Ocean News.

Bermuda Broadcasting Company, Defontes Broadcasting Company Ltd., the Bermuda Sun Ltd., and Defontes Broadcasting Television Ltd. have also been named as defendants in the case.