THE following is the text of a speech by Mid-Ocean News columnist Ira Philip about the history of the media in Bermuda, an address which he gave at a meeting of the Rotary Club this week.

IN a couple of months time (January of 2004 to be exact) Bermuda will be marking the 220th anniversary of the Press in these islands. So I will endeavour to enlighten you on some highlights of that history with particular reference to a number of editors and publishers and their publications about which I do not believe too much is generally known.

The first newspaper printed in Bermuda was The Bermuda Gazette and Weekly Advertiser. Joseph Stockdale, a Quaker who was induced to come to Bermuda from England, lock, stock and printing press by the tidy sum of 450 pounds, published that paper. The Bermuda Parliament in 1782 voted away that money for anyone so bold as to come to the island to print the laws made by the Legislature. The initial accounts printed became our very first newspaper.

Stockdale was evidently a most enterprising man. With a view to helping circulation, in the second issue of the paper he inserted this advertisement: "Wanted to hire immediately, a bright young Negro man, well acquainted with the Islands of Bermuda to travel twice a week throughout the country every week. One that can read will be preferred".

Bermuda at that time had no postal service. But by the time the third issue of the paper rolled off the press Stockdale had devised an ingenious island-wide service that resulted in the establishment of Bermuda's Postal Service. The postal service also come January next will mark its 220th anniversary. So in a dynamic way, Stockdale, until his death 19 years after arriving at age 30, had made an indelible impression on the Bermudian way of life.

Many other editors and publishers have followed Stockdale down through the years, each with his or her own expertise or idiosyncrasies bent on serving that they perceived to be the well-being of the community.

Some were to win total approbation; others ended up convicted in the courts of law, imprisoned or otherwise punished for their journalistic ideals. None so far as I could discern, lost their lives in the line of duty, but they faced many perils.

A good way to give you a perceptive view of some of those editors and publishers would be to look at their papers and their mottoes, along with their stated objectives. While not mentioning them in chronological order, it is of interest to note that Bermuda has during these 220 years had quite a number of Gazettes.

There have been three Bermudians (including tThe current Bermudian Magazine), two Bermuda Recorders, two New Eras, a Mid-Ocean and Mid-Ocean News, a Colonist, two Bermuda Times, a Mirror, Gleaner, a Knight Errant and a People's Journal.

Those of us who make a close study of the great newspapers of the world, can appreciate the impact of a name and a motto. We think readily of the New York Times with its motto "All the News That's Fit to Print." It was rather cogent until scandal hit the Times last year. We have a great Christian Science Monitor with "First the blade, then the ear; after that the full growth in the ear". Then the motto of the Bermuda Recorder with which I was associated for so long was Pro Bono Publico (For the Good of the Public).

One of the most intriguing mottoes I cam across in our early papers was: "We Shall Conceal Nothing We Shall Exaggerate Nothing."

That was in 1819 by the rather pugnacious Alexander Holmes. He set up what was the second newspaper to go into competition with the Stockdales. He launched The Bermudian (the first by that name.) The second Bermudian, also printed in St.George's, was started by a Mr. Jenkins. He sold out soon afterwards and went to China as a missionary.

The new publisher was Archibald Washington (a first cousin to US President George Washington). Archibald's son carried on the second Bermudian until 1860, and upon the son's death, his widow carried on Bermudian number two for the next 18 years (until 1878).

THE first Bermuda Recorder was a rather interesting newspaper, and in my view one of best printed, topologically speaking. The paper was launched in Paget in June 1899 by Mr. John J. Bushell. It was sub-titled: "The People's Own One Penny Paper dedicated to Naval, Military, Civil Service and General News". Bushell's motto was in Latin: Non-Sibi Patriae, which translated meant "Not For Self but for Country."

Bushell declared in his editorial columns what he regarded as the highest duty of a newspaper. The Recorder would be conducted in a spirit of Christian goodwill and charity to all; it would incessantly labour for the advancement of the spiritual, moral intellectual and general welfare of the country. Presumably, he must have felt the other newspapers of the day were found wanting in these regards.

The Bermuda Recorder Bushell added, would be no mushroom. It would be dedicated to the people, irrespective of any distinction of life, creed or otherwise. However, consistent with his perception of a newspaper's duty, he would positively refuse to even consider and article or correspondence of a bitter or malicious nature. Slander, abuse, grievances of a merely personal interest "shall never sully the columns of The Recorder".

And to clinch it all, Bushell made it clear that "namby-pamby sentimentalism, spring poetry or poems from love-sick idiots will be declined with thanks and promptly deposited in the wastepaper basket". Heavy articles containing quotations from Latin would likewise be deposited.

Displaying the instincts of the latter-day broadcast journalists who delight in what we now call "sound bites", Bushell stated, "our readers with views and news in plain English, with little Latin and less Greek, shall make the Recorder a record of the social, commercial and general news events that take place hourly in our small colony".

Bushell's Bermuda Recorder folded after one year and he concentrated on publishing a very valuable resource magazine known as Bushell's Handbook available in our National Archives along with the files of the first Bermuda Recorder.

Time does not permit me to focus much on how after Stockdale's death in 1803 his Bermuda Gazette was carried on by his three daughters. In 1816 (that's 32 years after Stockdale set up shop in St.George's) the sisters moved the press to Hamilton and the paper became known as The Bermuda Gazette and Hamilton and St. George's Weekly Advertiser (Free & Loyal).

The considerably enlarged paper then was printed by Charles Rollins Beach, who had by this time married Stockdale's daughter Sarah. Beach's move to Hamilton did not entirely please the people of St. George's, some of whom considered it a blow to the town's economy. So they boycotted the paper. Sometime earlier around 1809 Beach had begun incurring the displeasure of the Governor who threatened on a number of occasions to take legal action for the publisher's libelous attacks on Government House.

THE Governor considered the time was ripe for another King's Printer, so he imported Edmund Ward from Halifax to start a rival newspaper that he called The Royal Gazette. This was in fact the first Royal Gazette, published in Hamilton.

The Governor who couldn't get on with Beach eventually retired, and strange as it may seem, his successor couldn't get on with the rival publisher, and Ward was sent packing back to Canada. So, after a span of seven years Bermuda's first RoyalGazette was brought to an end. The next Royal Gazette came into being 12 years later, in 1828 and is still going strong today 175 years later.

I should state in passing that in 1824 Stockdale's historic paper collapsed (that's 40 years after it was launched). His son-in-law Charles Rollins Beach sold out and went to the United States where he died.

I'm going to do some leapfrogging here. So much for the Stockdales, the Wards and the Beaches whose names dominated the first 40-odd years of Bermuda's newspaper history.

We come to the family of Lees (particularly Donald McPhee Lee) who launched the present Royal Gazette and was its editor during the first 55 years of its existence. There was John Foggo Eve who succeeded Lee as the Gazette's editor and put in a total of 42 years with the paper.

Then we come to two generations of the Toddings family. The elder started the first Colonist and later the Mid-Ocean and in 1911 the Mid-Ocean News; and this brings us to the Parker Family and the launching of the first Black owned and operated newspaper. That was the Bermuda Times and Advocate launched August 1, 1871. Its founder was Samuel J. Parker, a black man who migrated to Bermuda from Halifax not too many years after the Emancipation of Slavery in 1834.

Samuel Parker's motto was: "For the cause that lacks assistance / For the wrong that needs resistance / For the future in the distance / And the Good we can do."

Parker, his three sons and three daughters were powerful influences in Bermuda for the three decades they were win the printing and publishing business. They also established themselves as leaders in the grocery and real estate businesses, and they were leaders in education, particularly pertaining to music.

The Parkers had four different papers, each with its own distinctive motto. The one that impressed me most was that of The People's Journal carried on by the widow of John J. Parker. It said: "Here Shall the Press the People's Right Maintain Unawed by influence, Un-bridled by Gain Her Patriot TRUTH her Glorious Precepts Draw Pledged to Religion, Liberty and Law."

To summarise, in all there have been upwards of 30 different newspapers launched in Bermuda during its 220-year history. At one stage there were no less that five newspapers competing on a daily or thrice weekly basis. Competition for readers was fierce.

We are privileged to live in a New Age and a New Bermuda. We don't talk in terms of "The Press" anymore, but rather the Media. By and large I think Bermuda is fairly well served by its media. They have shown remarkable capacity to rise to the occasion.