Government has called on the Island’s media to be more responsible in its reporting of current events and not to sensationalise them to the point of causing a “major riot in the summertime”.

Government Senator Wayne Caines brought up the issue during yesterday’s motion to adjourn in the Senate.

Sen. Caines said the community was becoming more polarised lately, sometimes due to a steady diet of inaccurate information that’s fed by certain media organisations, which some people then interpret as “the gospel”.

And he feared the combination of high emotion during an election season — which he says “does not have to be dirty as some predict” — has the potential to fuel antisocial behaviour and possible race riots.

“We’ve seen a number of sensationalised headlines over the recent months and after canvassing and talking with constituents, I’ve noticed that we’ve become very polarised,” Sen. Caines explained.

“Both sides need to be heard with balanced writing. When we talk about riots being in Bermuda, no one is suggesting that a race war will take place at the end of the summer.

“But we are seeing people ‘going into their corner’ like in a boxing match and we have to be careful that we are not creating the petrol in which this blaze will burn — whenever you go through an election period passions are at a fever-pitch.

“There’s a lot of disquiet on both fronts and it’s our responsibility to manage the challenges that we have as a community, have open dialogue and honest debate.

“As politicians we have a responsibility to ensure that we talk about the issues without sensationalising them and that includes sending around chain emails or saying things that are blatantly untrue.”

When pressed to give an example of media sensationalism, he added: “Newspapers have a responsibility as well and the responsibility of newspapers and all of the media is not to sensationalise challenges.”

In particular, he targeted the Mid-Ocean News, The Royal Gazette’s sister paper, suggesting it has the propensity to spin and slant the news.

“When you look at the Mid-Ocean News and you look at the way specific things that I will not go into, have been handled, I think often times there is a specific spin or a specific slant that certain political news coverage takes.

“I think that the press has to be more responsible in the way that they disseminate information because they have the opportunity to create thought — most Bermudians rely very heavily on the print media for their source of information.”

Also in the Senate’s motion to adjourn, Government Senator and Attorney General Phillip Perinchief warned while the media has a duty and freedom to inform the public, “that freedom is not unlimited.”

He echoed Sen. Caines’ sentiments on his belief that the media must be held accountable — just as Government is or any other sector is held. And, claims by some that the Island is sliding into a dictatorship are “virtually impossible” due to Bermuda’s Constitution, Sen. Perinchief discredited. “The whole question of a dictatorship should be really looked at along the lines within the context of the constitution,” he responded.