Premier Ewart Brown gave a rousing statement to the House of Assembly on May 7, proudly declaring that he was introducing the Public Access to Information Act 2010 — a law he insisted would see Bermuda "take a great leap forward" and strengthen the foundation of good governance on the Island.

He made little mention in Parliament, though, of another bill he was tabling that day: the Media Council Act 2010. With one hand, the leader of the Country was delivering what he described as an "expansion of our commitment to openness"; with the other, he was putting forward a piece of legislation which could, according to international and local commentators, have huge implications for the freedom of the press.

The second piece of legislation — announced in the 2008 Throne Speech and prompted in part, in Dr. Brown's words, by the "atmosphere" in the recent general election — seeks to establish an "independent media council" to "promote fairness, accuracy, accountability and journalistic integrity".

The day before he laid the proposed legislation down in the House, Dr. Brown called a press conference. He told journalists: "The draft bill is being shared with the media to ensure their continued support of this initiative."

"Continued support" was an interesting choice of words. The last the Island's main news outlets had heard of the legislation was in December 2008, when they formally objected to the proposed law in a joint letter to the Premier.

Their correspondence to him included a five-page proposal for a non-legislated, self-regulatory body and another five-page document listing concerns with the proposal being put before Cabinet.

Nothing was heard back and those media managers — Bill Craig, then CEO of Bermuda Broadcasting Company; PLP senator and radio host Thaao Dill, programme director of Inter-Island Communications; Chris Lodge, news director at DeFontes Broadcasting Company; Tony McWilliam, editor of the Bermuda Sun; and Bill Zuill, editor of The Royal Gazette — did not progress with their proposal for an "independent, industry-regulated media council".

That was a mistake, according to newspaper columnist Tom Vesey. "I wish the media had got its act together and done something on its own," he said. "It sort of infuriates me but I obviously could blame myself for not lifting a finger. I think it would have been very smart for the media to try that."

Newspaper editors in the UK did exactly that when faced with the prospect of a statutory press council with the power to enforce legal sanctions.

Together, they set up the independent Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in 1991 and established a formal code of practice.

William Gore, the PCC's public affairs director, told The Royal Gazette that the code had been adopted by about 97 percent of the UK's print media, including all national and most major regional newspapers.

"There is absolute acceptance that there should be some form of accountability system," he said.

When Bermuda Government promised two years ago to "pioneer the creation of a press council, a self-regulatory body" it sounded not dissimilar to the PCC.

But having read the bill last week, Mr. Gore said: "It's only self-regulation in the sense that you have been told you are paying for it. That's a very strange form of self-regulation. This seems very obviously an effort by the Government to impose something on the media that they collectively haven't agreed to."

Mr. Zuill admitted: "It can be suggested, with some justice, that the media itself should have gone ahead 18 months ago and formed an independent council.

"All I can say to that is that we are all busy people whose main preoccupation has been the survival of our operations; the threat of legislation, which now exists, certainly focuses the mind."

He suggested that Parliament delay consideration of the bill for 12 months to give the media the chance to develop its own self-regulating council and its own code of practice.

"If, in a year's time, Parliament is not satisfied with the media's efforts, then it would of course have every right to revisit the issue," he said.

"It should be emphasised that most of us in the media do not disagree with the idea of some kind of mechanism for complaints to be heard about the media when a person has not received satisfaction with the media organisation concerned."

Mr. McWilliam was off island and no one else from the Bermuda Sun was willing to speak about the bill last week. The Sun's editor said in 2008 he would support any "noble attempt to raise journalistic standards in Bermuda and make the press more accountable to the public" but would be dead set against "a forum for slighted politicians, zealots and fringe personalities to rail against the press for simply doing its job".

Those who have read the 12-page Media Council Act worry that the council could be just such a forum. The composition — a majority of members appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Premier — is of serious concern to international press freedom bodies, as well as journalists and editors here (see front page story).

Veteran VSB reporter Bryan Darby said: "Everyone says that the [press councils] that are run well are the ones that don't have any government involvement."

He said he was all for a media council that was independent but described the Act as a "cack-handed, clumsy way of doing it".

Local author and columnist Larry Burchall agreed. "You have got six people who will almost be guaranteed to make up a bloc against another five [media representatives] who may well represent some differing points of view. It is biased towards political interference and that's both unfair and it is against the tenets of democracy."

The funding is another major concern for Mr. Burchall and others, as well as a section of the bill which gives the council, in the event of an upheld complaint, the power to order an apology, retraction or correction and ban publication of "anything that is the subject of a complaint".

David Dadge, director of the International Press Institute, said: "That's prior restraint!" He said in a democracy it should not be the job of a non-legal body to make choices about what should and shouldn't be printed or broadcast.

"Media make choices about that. It's a purely editorial decision. If you have this kind of relationship, where you have government-chosen individuals on the council anyway, it's going to look as if the Government is trying to censor the media.

"This undermines confidence in Government and its relationship with the media and it gives the Government tremendous powers that it really shouldn't have."

Since the legislation doesn't set out what penalties would be imposed on those who don't abide by it, Mr. Dadge asked: "Could it be supported by some kind of criminal Act that would mean you would have the Police knocking on your door to enforce it?"

Former Bermuda Sun editor and Washington Post journalist Mr. Vesey said: "It's very sweeping. Scary. It's especially scary because the media is not going to have any say in who is going to be making those kinds of decisions."

Mr. Dadge said having the council — with its potential political bias — draw up a code of practice for the media was completely unacceptable. "The media should be drafting their own code of practice."

He said that considering the UK has a non-legislated council, having a statutory body here would be "embarrassing for all who are involved" — including the Governor.

Some broadcasters — including Cabinet Minister Glenn Blakeney — are wondering why the legislation covers them at all, since there is already a set of broadcast regulations and a Broadcast Commission.

Mr. Blakeney plans to support the bill in Parliament but admitted: "There might be some redundancy for broadcasters."

He isn't concerned that it could stifle the Island's popular radio talk shows, although the proposed Act does say complaints could be made about "any news, comment on news or discussion of public affairs that is broadcast".

The Minister, president and managing director of Inter-Island Communications, owner of Hott 107.5 FM and Magic 102.7 FM, is more worried about the financial ramifications.

"I do have concern about the media funding something that has not really been their initiative and I do believe that there will be vehement objection to underwriting any costs," he said.

He added that he didn't speak on the plan when it went before Cabinet in a "profound way" because of his involvement in the industry.

It was not possible to get comment from anyone at Bermuda Broadcasting Company. VSB news consultant Mr. Lodge said: "The general public has recourse, through the Broadcast Commissioners, to voice any grievance against any particular radio or TV station.

"Fortunately, [complaints] are few and far between. The last hearing I can recall from several years ago involved a former Premier who was alleged to have made inflammatory comments about the Opposition during a Government TV address."

Without the input of broadcasters, the media council would have to be funded by just two newspapers — neither of which has given their support to the bill.

That is unless Government decides to add more news outlets to the schedule attached to the bill. At the moment, it does not cover internet-only news sites, such as Bernews, Bermuda.com or Bermuda Wired, or any of the Island's many blogs.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the US-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said: "Just how far behind the times are these folks? Have they ever heard of the Internet?

"Apparently this will only apply to commercial media on the Island. As far as I can tell, they're incentivising chaos because the professionals won't be able to report freely, but every yokel in Bermuda can print whatever they want on their own blog."

* You can download and read the complete Media Council Act. by clicking here.