The local media came under fire yesterday, when senators targeted reporting at .

The newspaper was accused of capitalising on negative stories while ignoring positive ones in areas of tourism and education. ?s attitude towards the new Sports Code of Ethics, labelled as approaching censorship by Sports Editor Adrian Robson, was also mentioned during yesterday?s Senate session.

Government Senate leader Larry Mussenden was the first to launch the attack during the debate on the Criminal Code Amendment (2) Act.

The choice of stories published in the media ?vexes me to this day?, he said, adding that when the media were invited to cover the prizegiving at CedarBridge Academy, ?they didn?t find it important enough to come?. Sen. Mussenden also noted that he was wearing a CedarBridge tie yesterday, though Warwick Academy was his alma mater.

Instead of highlighting the accomplishments of public school students, he said, last week published erroneous stories on fights at CedarBridge. ?I am challenging the editor coming to that decision,? he said. ?It is disgraceful behaviour.?

Government Sen. Walter Roban also rued the lack of positive education stories in the media, while Government Sen. Raymond Tannock called for more positive tourism stories to be printed.

Though tourism is not the main pillar of the economy anymore, he said, it was still important. Yet, if something positive happens in the international business sector, he said, ?that is highlighted in the media ? you don?t find that happens in tourism?.

He wanted to ?encourage? the media to include more positive stories. ?There is nothing more depressing than working at a Ministry and only hearing the bad stories, never the good.? was unable to receive further comment from the Ministry of Tourism on Sen. Tannock?s observations yesterday.

Government Sen. Neville Tyrell rounded off the criticism with an observation that ?feathers were ruffled? in the media with the announcement of a Sports Code of Ethics.

In last week?s Friday Forum, Sports Editor Adrian Robson said a Government Code of Ethics for the media approached censorship, and observed that the page referring to the media had already been torn from the Code and put in the bin where it belonged.

?I would like to think we can all hold hands together,? Sen. Tyrell said during yesterday?s motion to adjourn in the Senate. ?It will benefit the community if we all conduct ourselves properly.?

Last night editor Bill Zuill defended the newspaper?s coverage.

?I have always been the first to admit that the media is not perfect and that we do make mistakes,? he said.

?But I think the comments in the Senate are completely unjustified and a total distortion of the truth.

?The Senate failed to recognise that any newspaper or media organisation have a responsibility to act as a watchdog on behalf of the public. That requires that the news be reported fully, warts and all.

?It is not true to say that we don?t cover positive stories. We recognise that is part of our responsibility as well. It?s ironic that Sen. Mussenden, who has personally had a tremendous amount of positive coverage from this newspaper, would choose to criticise our coverage of CedarBridge on the very same day that we ran a colour photograph of CedarBridge students bearing gift boxes for the fair Christmas Spirit campaign.

?I also regard the coverage of the fights that took place at CedarBridge last week to be fair and accurate. The vast majority of the story was in fact confirmed by the Government in a press statement, and we also had reliable sources stating that a teacher was attacked. The story did contain a denial from a deputy principal that he had been assaulted, and I think the coverage on that basis was fair and balanced.

?With regard to the CedarBridge prizegiving, we would have loved to have covered it ? had anyone taken the trouble to tell us it was occurring at the time.

?On tourism, it is also a fallacy to say that we don?t cover positive stories. Just last week we gave voluminous coverage to the Culinary Arts Festival, which is typical of our tourism coverage. Indeed it would be fair to say that Tourism Minister Ewart Brown rarely lifts his little finger without it being covered in the media.

?As far as our coverage of the Code of Conduct is concerned, Sen. Tyrrell fails to understand the rather large difference between reporting and opinion. The sports editor, through his Friday Forum, is entitled to give his opinion and Sen. Tyrell is entitled to disagree. But I think the coverage of the Code of Conduct for the media, which was written without even an attempt to consult Bermuda?s journalists, was fair and accurate.

?It?s an old trick practised by politicians of all stripes to shoot the messenger whenever they are deterred,? Mr. Zuill concluded. ?It would be nice to think that the senators who spoke today would devote more time to the very serious problem of crime confronting this community, and less time blaming the media for their problems.?