A retired business journalist who long reported on insurance markets says the media cannot shy away from printing negative stories on Bermuda companies in the midst of a widening insurance probe in the US that implicates some of Bermuda?s insurers ? no matter what effect that has on the Island?s image.

The comments were made after Finance Minister Paula Cox last week called on all stakeholders of ?Bermuda Inc.? ? including the media ? to recognise the role they play in the local sector?s failure or success.

Kathryn McIntyre ? former editor and publishing director for widely-read trade magazine Business Insurance ? reported on Bermuda for more than two decades and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bermuda Insurance Institute a year ago.

She shared her views with following comments from Ms Cox that a message ?about our attributes as an international financial services jurisdiction? should be carried by Government, regulators and the local media.

Ms Cox made her comments in a Friday Business story in defending the Island?s reputation as a financial centre, in the face of growing scrutiny from US regulators on business deals with Bermuda-based companies.

Yesterday, Ms Cox told her comments were ?very generically that we all have to be circumspect in our comments re Bermuda as a jurisdiction? not a criticism of the ?press per se?.

A high-profile probe from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice has most recently focused on commercial insurance giant American International Group, which has now admitted to numerous improper accounting manoeuvres ? including some with two Bermuda-based affiliates, Richmond Insurance Company and Starr International Company.

Although much focus has been on AIG, it emerged this week that two other Bermuda-based firms ? Inter-Ocean Holdings and Channel Re ? have also now come under the regulatory microscope, in a widening probe.

Both companies are partly owned by established players in the Bermuda insurance market ? with Renaissance Re having a stake in both companies and Partner Re being invested in Channel Re.

Inter-Ocean has now announced plans to go into run-off, with the news coming after a ratings downgrade from A.M. Best.

An insurer in run-off writes no new business but continues to remain open, sometimes with just a skeleton staff, to handle claims obligations from business already written.

In addition, a significant number of Bermuda re/insurers have been subpoenaed by US authorities for information after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer began an intense investigation of business practices more than a year ago.

One Bermuda company, ACE Limited, was named in a civil suit brought by Spitzer?s office against broker Marsh & McLennan after allegations of illegal bid rigging practices between Marsh and some of the insurers it placed business for, including ACE and AIG.

Marsh?s CEO Jeffrey Greenberg was forced out last November as a result of the Spitzer suit. Mr. Greenberg?s father, Maurice (Hank) Greenberg was then forced out of AIG last month, after 37 years because of Mr. Spitzer turning his investigation to the company?s accounting for business deals offshore.

A second son, Evan Greenberg, is CEO of Bermuda?s ACE Limited. There have been no charges against ACE, but it is under scrutiny with its latest US regulatory filing reporting it had ?received 43 subpoenas, interrogatories, civil investigative demands, and letters of inquiry in connection with the pending investigations of insurance industry practices?.

Last week, Ms Cox, who is also a corporate counsel for ACE Limited, told by email response to questions on the impact of the probes on Bermuda?s reputation as a financial centre, that the Island had a strong reputation of being a responsible jurisdiction, with an established regulatory regime administered by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. And she called on all stakeholders to consider the impact of comments made.

?We will continue to tell the message about our attributes as an international financial services jurisdiction. These messages cannot just be communicated by Government and the regulators, but must also be communicated by the various industry players and in fact also our media. I remember someone telling me a story a few years ago about how Kathryn McIntyre, former senior editor for Business Insurance, spoke at a luncheon in Bermuda and warned us not to become complacent, not to take what we have created here in Bermuda for granted. She also pulled out a number of articles that she had either read on her travels to Bermuda or picked up online. Articles that had been written by local media sources, and she warned us that the negativity we choose to print about Bermuda locally is read by all the sceptics and naysayers and then is used to fuel negativity campaigns that may be mounted against Bermuda.

?I have never forgotten that story and feel it appropriate now to remind every Bermudian stakeholder that we all play a significant role in the success or failure of Bermuda Inc.?

A copy of Ms McIntyre?s speech shows that the reference to articles from local media were crime reports, with most of those presumably being reported through the Courts.

In her speech, Ms McIntyre said that the Island was amiss if it thought it was going to protect Bermuda?s reputation as an insurance market with improvements to insurance legislation alone.

?The attempt by industry and Government here in Bermuda to answer these concerns with amendments to the insurance law has done little to answer these concerns. The announcement of the new regulation, I am sorry to report, was seen as a PR move.

?Another challenge for Bermuda is dealing with the reports of increasing crime here. I was sent a stack of clippings from on crimes against tourists visiting the Island.

?You can be sure that reinsurers, as well as captive managers, in other domiciles are circulating those clips to potential clients to convince them that Bermuda is not safe to visit. Never mind that the crimes wouldn?t earn a report in a New York newspaper. It startles people to read about crimes against visitors in Bermuda.?

By email message this week from her home in New Zealand, Ms McIntyre said it was the job of the media to report what is news, whatever the impact of that might be.

?I did advise the insurance industry in Bermuda not to become complacent. And I did criticise those journalists who engaged in Bermuda bashing just for sport without any foundation for it. But I never said the local media should not report negative news. I think my record stands for itself, as I wrote many articles on developments in Bermuda that I am sure insurance people in Bermuda and the Government would have preferred were ignored in the pages of Business Insurance. News is news.

?It?s a journalist?s job to report all the news, whether it reflects well or badly on the community.?

Ms McIntyre reported on the Bermuda insurance market from the late 1970s and said she continues to follow developments closely. She spent a total of 25 years with Business Insurance ? the must-read for corporate insurance buyers ? retiring in late 2001. She retired to New Zealand with her husband, Ronald Jacks, a former re/insurance lawyer.