Premier Ewart Brown's decision to largely sever communication with The Royal Gazette and the Mid-Ocean News smacks of censorship and oppressive behaviour, critics claimed yesterday.

But the Progressive Labour Party backed its leader, likening his actions to those of US president Barack Obama. A statement from the party said: "Freezing out biased media organisations is nothing new in democracies. During the 2008 campaign in the United States, Barack Obama 'froze out' Fox News.

"We are pleased that Premier Brown is following President Obama's lead and freezing out Bermuda's biased media outlets."

Others were less impressed with the Tourism and Transport Minister's tactics, including rival media.

A spokesman for VSB television and radio news said: "We find this distressing news because the thought of having to attend Government [press] conferences without the RG, or any other media for that matter, would put a major strain on our work and also make it extremely difficult because of the lack of objective questioning."

He added: "To have one side deliberately kept out of it would not be regarded with any sense of victory by the remaining media. We find it extremely oppressive."

Political commentators Stuart Hayward and Tom Vesey, both Bermuda Sun columnists, were equally critical.

Mr. Hayward said it appeared to be the latest episode of score-settling by Dr. Brown and was hardly democratic. "I think that to attempt to carry out vendettas is not a good thing," he said.

"When I first got involved in politics, my mentor said 'never try to battle an organisation that buys its paper and ink by the ton'. It's a battle you can't win. I think that's some advice that the Premier could benefit from."

Former Washington Post journalist and Bermuda Sun editor Mr. Vesey said: "This is a ham-handed attempt at censorship by another name — restricting access to Government as punishment for writing stories the Premier doesn't want printed.

"It's also self-defeating — every time anybody refuses to speak to the media, they are reducing their chances to explain their point of view, and increasing the odds that other people, with opposing points of view, will be the voices that are heard most clearly. It's also a waste of the Premier's time and energy but he seems to have boundless time and energy for this kind of stuff."

One PLP member told this newspaper it would be hard to get anyone to publicly defend Dr. Brown's decision as it was such a "juvenile" one. But LaVerne Furbert, from the Worker's Voice bi-monthly union publication, spoke out in support of Dr. Brown, whom she said was "quite correct" to reduce contact with the two newspapers.

"In my opinion, both newspapers seem to take delight in writing negative articles about the Premier. In my opinion, The Royal Gazette has taken on the role of the Opposition.

"Since Dr. Brown became the Premier, The Royal Gazette has made every effort to destabilise this country by discrediting our Premier. Not to say this effort was not made with Premier [Jennifer] Smith and Premier [Alex] Scott. It just seems as if the efforts of the newspapers owned by the Bermuda Press Holdings Ltd. have been intensified under the premiership of Dr. Brown."

The PLP statement said an editorial in this newspaper yesterday likening the "slavish devotion" of party members to North Koreans was offensive "plantation rhetoric" and demonstrated that it wasn't a "news organisation".

"We agree that a free and fair media is the nerve centre of a democracy. In a democracy, the media has an obligation to report the news fairly and without bias so that voters can make informed choices.

"Like The Sun in the United Kingdom and Fox News in the United States, The Royal Gazette and The Mid Ocean News are partisan news outlets that prefer biased sensationalism to fair and balanced news coverage."

But Opposition leader Kim Swan said the Premier's actions were "evidence of a dictatorial and insecure state of mind".

He said: "Today's edict stopping government communications with two local newspapers is childish, cowardly and an affront to the public's right to know about their government. It is clear the Premier is trying to hobble these newspapers, which are read by tens of thousands of Bermudians wanting to know what is going on in the community and with their government."