Government's controversial media council bill will be scrapped if the industry fulfils its pledge to set up a voluntary watchdog, Premier Ewart Brown told MPs yesterday.

He revealed that Government had decided to review a proposal sent to him by Bermuda's combined media on Thursday for a self-regulatory, rather than statutory, body.

"During this review period, the bill will remain on the order paper of the House of Assembly," Dr. Brown said.

"When the Government is satisfied that the media-generated plan meets the objective, the Government will remove the bill from the order paper."

Those in charge of the Island's five main news outlets — Rick Richardson, from Bermuda Broadcasting Company; Chris Lodge, from DeFontes Broadcasting Company; Thaao Dill, from Inter-Island Communications; Tony McWilliam, from the Bermuda Sun; and Bill Zuill, from The Royal Gazette — have promised to get the council up and running by mid-September.

They were first told that Government planned to set up a council to establish a code of conduct for the media and handle complaints in the 2008 Throne Speech.

But in their letter to Dr. Brown, they admitted: "We 'dropped the ball' on the formation of a media council."

The Premier tabled the Media Council Act 2010 on May 7, prompting an outcry from local journalists and global press freedom groups, who claimed it would be politically biased and could jeopardise the freedom of the press.

Dr. Brown told the House yesterday: "The Government believes that due to the lack of recourse available to members of the public who have been misrepresented in the media, the lack of a uniform and enforced code of standards, ethics and conduct, and the continuing deterioration of media objectivity, the formation of a media council is necessary to bring journalistic standards and Bermuda into the 21st century.

"The media council, as proposed by this Government, achieves that and, as international media organisations have determined, does not even come close to threatening the freedom of the press."

Opposition MP John Barritt asked, during parliamentary questions, for the names of the international organisations which had made that determination.

Dr. Brown replied: "My interpretation was that all of those organisations who initially seemed to be fearful, after they read it carefully, I'm sure they realised that there was no threat to freedom of speech. They haven't told me so but that's an assumption on my part."

Overseas organisations to have criticised the bill include the US-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the International Press Institute, the British Press Complaints Commission, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, the Centre for Law and Democracy in Canada and the CPU Media Trust.

All were sent a copy of the bill by this newspaper before commenting and none have retracted their remarks since.

Mr. Barritt asked the Premier if Government would post the draft legislation online and invite comment from the public.

Dr. Brown said: "We have already sought ideas and suggestions." He added: "One thing we don't want to do, one thing we are not going to do, is allow this to get bogged down in ultra-democracy and get buried."

Earlier, he criticised the media for failing to launch its own council in the last two years. "We were told they were too busy," he said. "The tabling of the Media Council Bill 2010 has apparently given them the opportunity to make journalistic standards a priority and we appreciate the response."

He claimed there had been scaremongering about the bill and an attempt to portray it as "oppressive and threatening to freedom of speech".

Dr. Brown said coverage in this newspaper repeatedly referred to the fact that a majority of members of the council would be appointed after consultation with the Premier, rarely mentioning that the Governor and Opposition leader were involved. "That's what we call reason sufficient for the formation of a media council," he said.

Later, referring to The Royal Gazette's coverage of a plan to redevelop Coral Beach, the Tourism Minister said: "Since we don't have the media council yet, this probably appeared on page 13 or 14."