Bermudian Government Slammed Over Changes To Broadcasting Law

by Mike Godfrey, for LawAndTax-News.com, Washington

18 March 2003

Following the announcement that the rules regarding the funding of political broadcasts in Bermuda have been re-written, the opposition United Bermuda Party has branded the changes as 'sinister'.

According to a report from the Royal Gazette, seven months after it was discovered that the goverment had used tax-payers' money to fund a televised political broadcast, the laws have been updated so that in future, all party television addresses will be financed from the public purse.

Following a broadcast made by Premier Jennifer Smith in February last year, the Broadcast Commission ruled that the address in question was political. However, the PLP government reportedly failed to repay the $6,500 cost of the broadcast.

Responding to the changes to the Broadcasting Commissioners Act published in the official legal notices of the Gazette on Friday, UBP Legislative Affairs Minister, John Barritt told the House of Assembly that:

'There is nothing but sinister in the way they have handled it as a government. Having been judged wrong, you steadfastly refuse to go to the party and pay for it as a (political) broadcast. If that isn't brass enough, you go behind doors with the Broadcasting Commissioners and change the directives. It shows it is sinister, it shows it is (through the) back door, and it shows a lack of transparency.'

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