Mystery last night surrounded an alleged public apology said by the Broadcasting Commission to have been given by Senator David Burch following the ?house nigger? comment he made on his radio show.

The Commission, which this week criticised the Works and Engineering Minister for his use of the phrase following a complaint by Shadow Finance Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, claimed he publicly apologised for saying it.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin has accused the Commission of blatantly lying to the public with regard to the apology and yesterday could find no record of such a statement.

Ira Philip, acting chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, would not say when or where it was made.

But he said of the claimed apology: ?He did that soon after having made the comment. That?s what the Commission was told.?

Mr. Philip said he was not going to go into any detail about the hearing into Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin?s complaint, held on May 2.

He added: ?We were told that he apologised.?

Fellow Broadcast Commissioner Curtis Williams said: ?It was my understanding that the apology was made on the air the week after. I didn?t hear it myself. I?m not going to quote exactly what was said.?

Glenn Blakeney, managing director of Hott 107.5, the station which airs Sen. Burch?s Sunday night show, said: ?I don?t recall it. Someone had mentioned to me. I don?t know for sure.?

Sen. Burch did not respond to a request for clarification on the ?apology? yesterday.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said: ?They (the Commission) lied. They said I was a bad girl for bringing the complaint. They said at least he had the decency to apologise.

?They have lied and it?s gone past me saying they are misrepresenting the facts. They have lied to protect his sorry behind.?

Sen. Burch made the ?house nigger? comment on his radio show on August 7 last year, when not a member of Cabinet, in apparent reference to a black UBP supporter.

Last December, he defended his use of the phrase in a Senate debate on race and discrimination. At the time, he said it was a relevant observation and something he was entitled to express under his own human rights.

He said that it was a term that some people may find offensive.

But he added: ?We need to be not offended because somebody used a term that you don?t like. The defence cannot be that if you say something that someone doesn?t like ?Oh, you?re a racist?.

?The fact that I say things that offend people ? they say things that offend me.?

Mr. Williams hit back last night at a claim by Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin that the Broadcast Commissioners were ?PLP henchmen?.

He would not comment on whether he supported the party but said that regardless of political persuasions ?we are all Bermudians with common sense?.

?I don?t have any political agenda,? he added.

Mr. Blakeney, a Government backbencher, said he was offended by the suggestion that the Commission was biased. ?I?m a member of the PLP and I don?t see where there has been any favour.?

He said he felt Sen. Burch?s remark on air did not overstep the mark as it was an inference made in the context of a talk show discussion.

?It was an opinion based on the host conveying that over the airwaves. Freedom of expression is the order of the day.?

He added: ?I don?t think there is warranted any punitive action. We haven?t broken any law. We take our social responsibilities, civil responsibilities and commercial responsibilities very, very seriously.?