OES the news media contribute to the racial divide and sharpen political antagonisms in Bermuda?

This is a question that we have heard a number of Government Ministers and their supporters ask out loud recently. But is there merit to this charge or are these Blame-the-Messenger attacks just another exercise in Government damage control?

I don't think that it can be denied there is a great and longstanding estrangement between the news media (and in particular the print media) and the Government.

Of course, this situation is not unique to Bermuda. In democratic societies around the world you will often find the dominant news media at odds with the government of the day around the world and often enough it is over issues of news reporting.

It's no coincidence, for instance, that when Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe first began to arrogate more and more power to himself and destroy his country's democratic system, one of his first targets was an independent Press which had been scathingly critical of his power-grabbing methods.

The same heavy-handed tactics are used in all totalitarian regimes of both the left and the right ? such governments effectively grant themselves a monopoly on the truth and they do not like to be challenged or second-guessed by independent voices in their countries.

You often hear the media referred to as the Fourth Estate. The media earned this nickname in acknowledgement of the fact it can become a power in its own right in the public life of a country. Anglo-Irish politician and author Edmund Burke coined the term in the 19th century when he said: "The parliamentary debate go on . . . in a far more comprehensive way, out of Parliament altogether. There are three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sits a fourth Estate more important than them all" (the other three estates in the British parliamentary power structure were considered to be The Lords Spiritual, The Lords Temporal and the House of Commons).

Another important role the media plays aside from reporting the day-to-day news is that, in a low-key way, it holds up a mirror to a country so that society can see its reflection there.

Because of Bermuda's racial divide this has not always been the case here.

Certainly in the 1930s, '40s and '50s black Bermudians and their concerns were conspicuous by their absence from the columns of the dominant media which catered almost exclusively to Bermuda's white minority and the largely white base of visitors this island attracted at the height of its popularity as a very exclusive tourism resort.

it must also be said that in many other societies, even those which claim to be fully functioning democracies, whole segments of society can find their points of view and opinions excluded from the mainstream media. Often the answer to this situation is to create your own media and news reporting apparatus.

In Bermuda the black community has, on occasion, felt the need to establish its own media presence. As far back as the 1800s we had thriving black-owned newspapers such as the and . These early papers had the distinction of being run and owned by women, the Parker sisters, under the direction of the eldest member of that clan, Amelia Parker.

Other black newspapers have included , and but the best-known publication of the modern era remains the venerable , which ceased publication in the 1970s.

Unfortunately all of these newspapers are now long since defunct. And with the exception of an incomplete run of the that you can find archived at the Reference Library in Hamilton, only a very limited number of these papers have survived to the present day ? meaning it's difficult to gauge the opinions of the black community (at least those opinions reflected in the media) that existed during earlier periods in Bermudian history.

In recent times there was an attempt to start up another black-owned newspaper with the historical name but that also failed and is no longer in existence.

It is tough to operate a newspaper in Bermuda and have it become an economic success. Bermuda is a small community with only a limited (and shrinking) advertising base and a small readership to buy your publication. These facts have bedevilled all recent attempts to start up a successful newspaper in Bermuda, that and the difficulty in attracting a loyal readership that buys the existing publications out of long-established habit.

These factors have especially impacted on the black community in its efforts to start its own newspaper. And, sadly, it's probably fair to say that since the demise of the , there has been a lack of a market within the black community for a black-owned and oriented newspaper.

I can make this statement authoritatively in that I used to write a column for one publication targeted at black Bermudians (and still write a column for another such news organ), both of which I would consider to be the step-children of the Bermudian news media.

While other newspapers were being snapped up, these publications would remain on the shelf and never attracted a broad readership among the demographic they were specifically directed towards. You would think the black community had an interest in ensuring the survival of these publications, ones that provided them with some voice in the media in Bermuda, but that has not been the case since the mid-1970s.

Interestingly, I was once approached by an individual who attempted to dissuade me from writing for the because, he claimed, he perceived both racial and political bias in the newspaper's content.

I was bemused because I found his argument to be something of a contradiction in terms. I hardly think I fit the profile of a co-conspirator in some Vast Right Wing Media Plot to demoralise a black Government and the black community at large.

The opinions I express in my column address the racial divide from a black perspective and I have never shied away from addressing issue in this newspaper that might be deemed controversial by either the old white power structure or, for that matter, the relatively new black Government.

I have always been like this and I have always been able to find a media vehicle that will publish my views.

always felt that if you don't like what the media is saying about you or your community then you must engage the media in any way you can. In the Bermuda context, the reality is that if you can't create your own black-owned media then you are going to have to work with the media that is in existence.

And, Government-generated wild accusations and caricatures notwithstanding, I have always been able to find outlets for my views since the turbulent 1960s - when the political and social climates in Bermuda were both far more torrid than is the case today.

Bermuda, in my opinion, is still a democracy in the making. But once we get a full understanding of the important role that the freedom of speech plays in both the creation and maintenance of a democratic society, then there will be less fear and loathing when it comes to engaging the media and more and more people (including, I hope, Cabinet Ministers) will be able to telegraph their opinions and viewpoints to the public at large through the media.