Royal Gazette Feels Burned After Push for Sunshine Law in Bermuda

The Royal Gazette in Hamilton, Bermuda, celebrated its first Sunshine Week in 2008. Then the government pulled its advertising.

While government officials maintain the move was part of an overall cost-cutting initiative, Royal Gazette Editor Bill Zuill, sees it differently.

"In the end, it would appear that Sunshine Week, and this newspaper's advocacy of a Freedom of Information law, was the straw that broke the camel’s back," he wrote in a special editorial for Sunshine Week.

"The government’s confused message on the legislation along with its vigorous efforts to discredit the campaign and The Royal Gazette suggest that the ban had been in the works for some time, but our attempts to shine a little light on the inner workings of government proved to be more than it could take," Zuill added.

Zuill's opinion column may be republished by newspapers, Web sites, bloggers and others. Because of the difficulty in tracking such use, please let us know if you've used it.

Click here for Zuill's column and links to PDFs of The Royal Gazette's Sunshine Week coverage.

Comments

[Sal]

The "Pay-to-Play Premier" uses Taxpayer's millions to create his own propaganda machine.

He cut off the Royal Gazette to block free speech,and is planning to publish his own newspaper,in addition to his own Govt.TV and radio stations pumping out PLP propaganda.

Cabinet expenses increased by 33%
in this year's $1.1 billion massive budget thats $3,000,000 per day !

PLP Govt. travel budget tripled in a decade
$7,436,000 MILLION for 2008/09