A global network of editors and journalists has written to Premier Ewart Brown to complain at Government's continued ban on advertising with The Royal Gazette.

The International Press Institute (IPI) — which has members in more than 120 countries — wrote in a letter dated yesterday that it was concerned about the continued implementation of an advertising ban put in place earlier this year.

IPI director David Dadge wrote: "The use of official advertising to punish or reward media outlets is an indirect form of censorship that restricts press freedom and in many cases places the survival of a publication at risk.

"We call on the Government of Bermuda to end its ban and to create procedures that ensure that advertising is distributed in an open, fair and transparent manner."

Bill Zuill, editor of The Royal Gazette, said earlier this year that the advertising ban implemented in March would cost The Royal Gazette some $800,000 annually – the equivalent of ten editorial jobs.

He believes the Government's decision — detailed in a Cabinet Office press release on cost cutting — to axe advertising with this newspaper was prompted by our A Right To Know campaign, which calls for a public access to information law, and our Sunshine Week coverage.

The IPI's letter comes after a number of other international bodies, including the Inter American Press Association, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, Reporters Without Borders and the Sunshine Week organisers, condemned the Government's decision.

Mr. Dadge wrote: "According to information before IPI, in March 2008, the Minister of Labour, Home Affairs and Housing, David Burch, said his Ministry would no longer place advertisements in The Royal Gazette.

"He also suspended all subscriptions to the newspaper and its sister paper, the Mid-Ocean News. A few weeks later, the Cabinet Office announced that it was issuing a government-wide ban on advertising in The Royal Gazette and that it would in future place more advertisements in electronic media outlets, especially radio and the Internet. IPI also understands that the Government continues to advertise in rival publications, including the privately-owned bi-weekly Bermuda Sun.

"These actions have led to fears that the Government of Bermuda is seeking to penalise The Royal Gazette for its allegedly 'biased' reporting and for launching, at the beginning of 2008, a campaign titled A Right to Know: Giving People Power, which aims at the speedy introduction of freedom of information legislation in Bermuda."

Dr. Brown has denied the decision to stop doing business with the paper was a punishment, claiming it simply made financial sense. He said the A Right To Know campaign was one without opposition.