reporting restrictions and limited choice of news mediums, Editor of The Royal Gazette Mr. David L. White told Hamilton Lions yesterday.

On a scale of one to ten, Mr. White gave freedom of Press in Bermuda a seven.

"I do not think the Press is as free in Bermuda as it was when I first became a journalist some 45 years ago,'' he said.

In recent weeks there had been a number of flagrant breaches of the public's right to public information, Mr. White said.

These included Government's refusal to disclose the cost of Independence propaganda, the bus workers' wage settlement and the cost to the taxpayer of road works at Burnt House Hill.

"Closed Government is not freedom,'' Mr. White said.

Politicians and the media, he said, were natural adversaries. While the interplay between them at times appeared a game, it also ensured the survival of the Island as a democracy, he said.

"That is the essence of the media's job. Keep them on their toes and keep them honest.'' Politicians and public officials deserved closer scrutiny than ordinary citizens and should be held to much higher standards, he said.

Unlike many other countries, criminal libel laws still existed in Bermuda and were used to keep the media in line.

"That is not freedom,'' Mr. White said. "In my view all of this curtails the Press in its duty to be a watchdog of Government.'' He pointed to media mogul Robert Maxwell as one who silenced his critics with writs. This same ruse had been tried in Bermuda.

But constant criticism of the Press also amounted to a form of censorship when the media became shy of reporting the facts.

In this vein, he said, the public should separate the Gazette's opinion column from its news columns.

"The editorial is the opinion expressed by the newspaper. It is nothing more than that nor should it be and it can be just as flawed and just as fallible as anyone else's opinion.'' Restrictions on reporting names of sexual offenders was a male chauvinist law, Mr. White said. It was counter-productive and encouraged the guilty to reoffend.

Mr. White went on to comment that it was "nothing short of appalling'' that St. George's and Hamilton Corporations be able to conduct public business in secret.

"I think the Press has a right to be there in order to keep you informed.'' But the limited choice of news mediums in Bermuda was also unhealthy. In recent years The Royal Gazette had increasingly become the primary source of the Island's news.

"You receive the Gazette in print in the morning, it is broadcast to you for much of the day and in the evening you receive reaction to the morning Gazette from television. This was not always true,'' Mr. White said.

But on the whole, journalists in Bermuda were remarkably restrained and respected peoples' privacy and the Island was also free of "cheque book journalism''.

Nevertheless journalists needed to be more committed to objectivity, thoroughness and accuracy, he said.

"I am the last person to tell you that The Royal Gazette always gets ideas right or all the facts correct.'' But he added that the public should remember journalists made their mistakes in public.

"Just think what it would be like if you published your mistakes every day?'' he asked. "That's what I do.'' In reply to VSB senior correspondent Mr. Bryan Darby's question on how the Premier's speech in the House of Assembley last month came to be rewritten, Mr. White replied a sub editor had tried to pick up what the Premier said in the House after a reporter arrived late. But the comments attributed to the Premier had been made on television -- not on the House floor.