A media organisation representing more than 1,300 print publications is urging Government not to use official advertising as a "weapon of reprisal" against The Royal Gazette.

The Miami-based Inter American Press Association has written to Premier Ewart Brown to say: "Discrimination in the placement of advertising severely restricts freedom of the press."

Cabinet decided last month to axe the Government's advertising and subscription deals with this newspaper, claiming it was a cost-saving measure, but continuing to place adverts with other media.

The letter to Dr. Brown from IAPA president Earl Maucker and Gonzalo Marroquin, chairman of the IAPA's committee on freedom of the press and information, says Government "should allocate its resources with complete transparency and employ purely technical criteria" in relation to decisions on the spending of public funds.

Dr. Brown wrote back to the organisation yesterday justifying the decision to cut advertising and insisting that the Government was not punishing this newspaper.

The decision came soon after Home Affairs Minister David Burch said in a television interview that his Ministry no longer subscribed to this newspaper or its sister paper the Mid-Ocean News.

He told ZBM News: "I think my views on both those publications are well known and I see no value as a Minister of Government spending taxpayers' money on purchasing fiction and if people wish to do that people should spend their own 90 cents."

Progressive Labour Party member Jonathan Starling, a vocal critic of The Royal Gazette, wrote on his Catch a Fire Internet blog on March 27: "Despite the spin put forward by the Government regarding its decision to do this as based on budget cost cutting, I have reasons to believe that this is largely spin, and that the real reason is indeed to facilitate the destruction of The Royal Gazette as an organisation."

He added: "I had known of the planned action towards the RG for at least two weeks, but was still surprised that they decided to go ahead with it. I want to make clear that I myself have some serious reservations concerning the bias of the RG, but I do not think this excuses the action currently being taken towards them."

A press release issued on Tuesday by the IAPA, whose membership stretches from Patagonia to Alaska with a combined circulation of more than 43 million, explained that its letter was written in response to a complaint by this newspaper.

It quotes an editorial which claimed the cutback was a payback for our A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign to get public access to information (PATI) legislation for Bermuda.

Dr. Brown said in his letter the point about payback was weak, particularly since Government was committed to delivering the legislation.

"When our position on PATI is taken into consideration you might realize, as many have, that The Royal Gazette's campaign was a campaign without opposition.

"The Government of Bermuda has no reason to 'punish' anyone on this issue — I would say punishing those who agree with you is not a wise practice among political leaders."

Dr. Brown's letter says this newspaper received almost $800,000 in government spending during the last fiscal year and it was "more penetrative" for Government to advertise online, because more than 80 per cent of residents have household Internet access.

The story has already made news in the Caribbean, appearing on the Caribbean Net News website, which gets 12,000 page views daily.

Local blog Vexed Bermoothes has also picked up the story, saying in a post yesterday: "In Bermuda, the PLP tactics to 'punish' The Royal Gazette are being met with an exasperated shrug. Elsewhere, the move to use Government resources to impede a free press is attracting shocked attention.

"It's really quite an embarrassment for Bermuda to be singled out for this criticism — to be grouped in with countries that sponsor censorship, violence against journalists and aggression towards free speech."

The letter from the IAPA, a nonprofit independent organisation dedicated to defending freedom of expression and of the press throughout the Americas, states that the organisation deplores the use of government advertising as a means to reward or punish the news media.

"Following the public announcements made by your government there has been no indication of the kind of methodology used in the placement of official advertising," says the letter. "In view of this, and of the fact that discrimination in the placement of that advertising severely restricts freedom of the press, we would respectfully ask you to review the action taken by your government against The Royal Gazette and other media in your country."

Bill Zuill, editor of The Royal Gazette, has asked Government to reveal the methodology it used when deciding to curtail print advertising in favour of electronic and broadcast media.

"It is important that Government be completely open and transparent on this point because there will be many who will see this as nothing but a rather unsubtle and ham-fisted attempt to financially squeeze this newspaper in order to intimidate us from reporting criticisms of Government when the occasion arises," he said last month.

* See Letters to the Editor on the Opinion page for the full letter from the IAPA to Dr. Brown. See tomorrow's edition of The Royal Gazette for the Premier's letter in full and a response from the editor.