A conference of Caribbean media workers has been told of Government's decision to ban advertising with The Royal Gazette — and how such action is typically a method of punishing the press.

Wesley Gibbings, president of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM), told the event in Georgetown, Guyana, on May 1 of the Cabinet Office's move to stop all advertising and subscriptions with this newspaper.

The Caribbean Media And Communications Conference was attended by about 60 Caribbean media bosses, regulators, journalists and media trainers.

The speech was streamed on the internet to audiences all over the globe, with hits registered in St Kitts, Trinidad, the US, Grenada and Antigua, and has been reported by Nation News in Barbados.

Mr. Gibbings told delegates: "Last month, in Bermuda — an associate member of Caricom but not covered by our mandate as an organisation – the Government there announced a cutback in state advertising in the print media and terminated its subscriptions of newspapers meant for government offices and departments.

"The Royal Gazette, the Island's only daily newspaper, has protested these acts claiming they were in response to the media house's independent editorial line. Our position is that the withdrawal of state advertising has been widely recognised by governments all over the world as a method of punishing media houses for behaviour viewed as being recalcitrant or not in keeping with their political agendas."

Mr. Gibbings said the Cayman Islands withdrew state advertising from Cayman Net News in 2004 and was reminded by ACM of hemispheric commitments contained in the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

That declaration states that using official advertising to punish or reward the media because of opinions expressed threatens freedom of expression and must be explicitly prohibited by law.

Meanwhile, the organiser of Sunshine Week in the States has told of her "shock and dismay" at Government's decision.

Debra Gersh Hernandez contacted us after reading how the axe fell after we launched our A Right To Know: Giving People Power campaign and celebrated Sunshine Week, an American journalism initiative promoting dialogue about the importance of open government, on the Island in March.

"I am reading with shock and dismay the news about your government's repercussions against The Royal Gazette for its Sunshine Week and other FOI (freedom of information) coverage," said Ms Gersh Hernandez.

"While there are certainly — unfortunately — many places around the world where that news could be expected, I am appalled to think it could happen there."

She added: "I stand with the Gazette in the fight for open government and wish you all good luck."

Ms Gersh Hernandez' comments follow a letter from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) to Premier Ewart Brown last month, urging him and his Cabinet not to use official advertising as a "weapon of reprisal" against The Royal Gazette.

The newspaper employs more than 100 people, 85 percent of whom are Bermudian, and is the only media organisation on the Island offering formal internal and overseas training to its editorial staff.

Editor Bill Zuill believes the Government's decision — detailed in a Cabinet Office press release on cost cutting — was prompted by A Right To Know, which calls for an FOI or public access to information law, and our Sunshine Week coverage.

He told the British Press Gazette last week the move would cost $800,000 — equivalent to ten editorial jobs.

Dr. Brown has insisted the decision to stop doing business with the paper was a financial one and not a punishment. He replied to the IAPA to say the A Right To Know campaign was one without opposition.