Anyone following the news in the last few weeks and the prominence given to the United Bermuda Party's internal problems would be mystified by the Progressive Labour Party's claims that the media ? and this newspaper in particular ? is biased against it.

The truth is that the media, faced with an often hostile Government public relations apparatus that sometimes gives the impression that its main job is to keep journalists away from Cabinet Ministers, simply reports the news as it happens.

Nonetheless, the Government, apparently unable to get its message across through the Department of Communication and Information (cost to taxpayers $1.75 million a year), or the Premier's own press secretary (cost to taxpayers $100,000-plus a year), is now going ahead with plans for its own television station.

So far the capital cost of this project has been set at $175,000. Salaries for a general manager, traffic coordinator and engineers will add another $270,000 or so, but this does not seem to cover much of the actual production costs of the as yet unannounced programming.

This newspaper has heard various descriptions of what the programming will consist of. The least informed has come from a number of Cabinet Ministers who have tried to defend the idea by comparing it to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or the British Broadcasting Corporation, apparently without understanding that these are independent organisations that receive Government funding. In the case of the BBC, its news department has been perennially at loggerheads with past and present governments of all political persuasions. That clearly is not what the Bermuda Government has in mind.

There has also been some talk about the channel being something like C-Span in the US, which provides coverage of the US Congress and other federal government hearings and the like.

The other alternative is that the channel will simply allow Ministers and civil servants to talk at length about their Ministries' and Departments' programmes, in an atmosphere in which there is no scrutiny, questions are soft and the coverage is universally favourable.

Finally, of course, the channel could be a pure propaganda vehicle dedicated to the greater glory of Premier Ewart Brown and his colleagues in a blatant hijack of the public purse.

Of all the possibilities, the last seems unlikely, if only because it is so blatant.

Instead shows dedicated to promoting Government projects and programmes seems likely. It would be preferable if the press conferences, public meetings and parliament were also shown, but this seems less likely. Apart from the cost of attending those events, the House of Assembly has already indicated it has no real wish for its proceedings to be televised, and one wonders how many virulent attacks on Government would be allowed before the censor struck.

That's a shame, because a channel of that sort might have some public benefit and could justify its existence. At the very least, it might force MPs to spend more time in their seats with the television cameras on, and could even improve the quality of debate, although that is almost certainly a vain hope.

Any Government television station faces two risks, and it is difficult to see how it will escape one without becoming the other: The first is that it will be so incredibly dull that no one will watch, in which case it will be a colossal waste of money.

The second is that it will be hopelessly biased, meaning it will be forever struggling to have any kind of credibility. That may not be a deliberate act, but the conflict faced by people collecting a Government salary will most likely be insuperable.

The truth is that Bermuda already has a concentration of media that is remarkable for its size. All are fiercely independent, competitive and represent a diversity of views ? with the host of a morning radio show "coming out" as a PLP member just the other day and literally falling over himself in praise of the Premier ? is there any need for a Government-funded broadcaster?

One cannot help but wonder if the money being spent on this would be better used for housing or scholarships, but if there must be a TV station, at least make it one that shows government with its warts fully on display.