Pressure Works: Media Moves to Establish Council, Government Withdraws Bill
Almost everyone agrees that Bermuda needs a Media Council to both uphold journalistic standards and ethics and give the misrepresented recourse. We waited years for the media to act on their own. They didn't. They were "too busy." So, we acted and introduced legislation to create a Media Council. Soon after the legislation was introduced, the media moved to create a Council. The pressure worked. The Media Council is coming and it won't require legislation.
Premier Ewart Brown:
I rise today to acknowledge that the Government has received and intend to review the proposal by Bermuda’s combined media to form a Media Council. 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 goal and as International Media Organizations have determined does not even come close to threatening the freedom of the press.
This Government has given Bermuda’s combined media two years to form their own self regulated Media Council with a uniform and enforced Code of Conduct. We were told they were too busy! The tabling of the Media Council Bill 2010 has apparently given them the opportunity to make journalistic standards a priority and we appreciate their response. We are pleased to see that leadership has emerged within Bermuda’s media outlets and would like to take special note of the leadership and actions of Mr. Tony McWilliams of the Bermuda Sun and Mr. Senator Thaao Dill of Interisland Communications in helping to begin this process.
We look forward to the launch of the Media Council later this year.
