I think some Bermudians are looking the wrong way at Minister Michael Fahy’s refusal to grant a Canadian team permission to film a programme about the murder of Rebecca Middleton.

There is some feeling in the community that this is an attack on freedom of expression. How could that possibly be?

The story of Miss Middleton’s murder has been told and retold many times, in the 18 years since it was committed, without hindrance, both in Bermuda and in Canada. Few Canadians will not already be familiar with it, and therein lies the problem.

When a story has been told many times, the pressure for ‘new’ information for a new programme becomes very strong, and that usually translates into exaggeration and sensationalised versions of the truth. If people are being paid for their testimony, the pressure becomes even greater.

In the circumstances, Minister Fahy’s fear that Bermuda’s reputation might be harmed in a new telling is perfectly reasonable and logical.

No one is being prevented from saying what he likes about Rebecca Middleton’s horrible murder. Journalists here and in Canada are as free to tell and re-tell the story as they have ever been. Nothing prevents the Canadian film company making this newest version of the story entering into some kind of business relationship with Bermudian film-makers to get the footage they want to get. It’s worth pointing out that these are not journalists, per se, but film-makers who want to sell the story they’re telling.

So the theory that press freedom is being interfered with is nonsense — the stuff of cheap political provocation.

It is true that banning these film-makers may on this occasion generate more publicity than would allowing them to come and do their work here. It’s a moot point, because nobody knows for sure.

But will this be the last time? Will this be the last time a film programme will be made about the Middleton murder? I doubt it. The serial re-telling of this story suggests to me that there are people who, for reasons one can only guess at, are making it their business to have the story told again and again.

The Rebecca Middleton murder was an appalling tragedy. A young girl lost her life in horrific circumstances. The case was handled badly by the authorities. The result was that justice was denied to Miss Middleton, her family and, I make so bold as to suggest, to the Bermuda community.

We have never made any attempt to cover up or conceal the facts. We agree that the case was handled so badly as to bring shame on Bermuda.

Why should we be forced to atone for that over and over again? Why should we enable the further notoriety of this case in Canada and elsewhere? It has been nearly two decades.

Bermuda’s system of justice is one we can be proud of. Failure is a rare event, and one that attracts a great deal of soul-searching as we try to understand the reasons it occurred and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. In this case, we are exploring the possibility of Constitutional change to allow for the retrial of serious crimes when new and compelling evidence comes to light, as it did in the Middleton case.

We pay attention to our responsibilities in the area of human rights. Our Constitution guarantees such things as freedom of speech. We are proud to call ourselves a democratic country in the front rank of the world’s civilised nations.

Minister Fahy was standing up for Bermuda and for Bermuda’s reputation when he closed the door to these film-makers. He was telling them, and anyone else who might be listening, that while Bermuda is a fair and law-abiding country, we are not masochists. Please treat us with a little respect.

• Jeff Sousa is the One Bermuda Alliance MP for Warwick West.