flames of discontent, a Shadow Minister charged yesterday.

Shadow Minister of Youth, Sport and Recreation Dr. Ewart Brown, said that only "conspiratorial minds'' could have caused the newspaper to produce the steady diet of negative stories about the seven under-23 soccer players who were arrested in Miami last year.

Dr. Brown made it clear that his criticism was not an attack on the newspaper industry in general.

Instead, he said he was attacking the newspaper's role and coverage of the events that befell the so-called Miami Seven in the United States.

"On the morning of the celebrations of the victory over Jamaica, there was a one column headline on the bottom right hand corner and a story that was three or four paragraphs long,'' he said.

"They have an editorial right to give it as little coverage as they decide.

But after the arrest there was a banner headline, the first one for the year, outlining the facts of the arrest.

"This was news. But why was it not news when they won?'' Dr. Brown said it was this kind of journalism that sapped the energy of the Island's young people.

Instead of following the events in Miami objectively, Dr. Brown said the newspaper became "an uninvited member of the prosecution''.

Yesterday, Royal Gazette Editor Mr. David L. White stood by the newspaper's coverage of the Bermuda Under 23s.

When the team was bidding to qualify for the Games, the newspaper went to the expense of sending a reporter to cover the matches in Jamaica and the victory over Jamaica was given a front page story and was the lead story on the front page of the sports section, Mr. White said.

This was considered to be appropriate treatment for a youth team -- not the national team -- for qualifying for a regional tournament, albeit an important one.

When the seven players were arrested for possessing drugs in Miami, the story ceased to be a sports story and became an important news story, which was covered not only by the local news media but by major US TV networks such as Cable News Network and the Miami Herald, and this was the reason it was the front page lead on that day and on several days thereafter when the paper broke new stories about the case and drugs problems facing local soccer.

Dr. Brown's suggestions that the newspaper was on the side of the prosecution were ridiculous, he said.

Several stories giving the players' families were published as were the comments of the players lawyers, he said. But so were the prosecution's views on the case, and that was right and proper in reporting both sides of the story.

Mr. White said Dr. Brown's objections appeared to stem from the fact that the newspaper also revealed that former Bermuda Football Association technical director Mr. Burkhard Ziese had alleged that other incidents of drugs use had taken place during the tour and had been ignored by the BFA.

The Royal Gazette's reporting of the events in Miami was accurate and balanced -- to the degree that was possible given the stonewalling that the newspaper's reporters faced from the BFA and the players' lawyer -- and was often groundbreaking, Mr. White added.

In the House, Dr. Brown called on Government to step in when it sees The Royal Gazette dashing young Bermudians' hopes.

Dr. Brown said he found it interesting that the newspaper made no inquiries regarding the stop list when a former member of the House of Assembly was convicted of handgun possession.

Yet such inquiries were made after the seven players entered a no-contest plea.

"What does that say?'' he asked. "A conspiratorial mindset would cause a newspaper to do that.'' Dr. Brown also said yesterday's editorial showed clearly that the newspaper was guilty of playing the race card when it mentioned United Bermuda Party members by their proper titles but referred to Shadow Human Affairs Minister Miss. Renee Webb as "MP Renee Webb''.