Premier Dr. Ewart Brown's speech at the Progressive Labour Party's annual banquet on Saturday makes one thing crystal clear — he is intent on making the media the top issue in the General Election.

This campaign will posit that this newspaper is a conspirator with the Opposition United Bermuda Party to bring down the PLP government, and more particularly, Dr. Brown himself. Nothing could be further from the truth. This newspaper and its staff have worked hard to report fairly and accurately on the news of the day, without fear or favour, warts and all. That will not change.

Nonetheless, Dr. Brown made several unfounded allegations that deserve a response.

He alleged that this newspaper's reporting on Stemedica and his plans to open a stem cell research facility at Winterhaven were deliberately timed to put him in a bad light during the PGA Grand Slam of gold. He further claims that the reporting was libellous.

But Dr. Brown omitted the fact that he was given ample opportunity to respond to the reports and chose not to, as did Stemedica. He has not pointed out a single error in the coverage since. And he also ignores the fact that during the days when the PGA Grand Slam was actually being played, the tournament received fulsome front page coverage. Not only that, an editorial that week stated: "Premier Dr. Ewart Brown has been criticised from time to time in this column, and it is only fair to give him credit when it is due. By all accounts, the preparations for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf which takes place this week have been first class and it is well set to be a first class event."

The same editorial concluded: "So Dr. Brown, the Department of Tourism and the other organisers of the events (the PGA Grand Slam and the Bermuda Music Festival) deserve credit for putting Bermuda on the map." None of that was mentioned in Dr. Brown's speech, presumably because it would not suit his conspiracy theory.

Dr. Brown also complained that a headline after the Music Festival said: "Premier brands Musical Festival a success." This was heinous, said Dr. Brown, who thought this newspaper should have quoted some of the festival-goers instead. But Dr. Brown is the Tourism Minister and responsible for the activities of his Ministry including the Music Festival. What better person to quote? Dr. Brown's other allegations are equally unfair. In particular, he misquotes a statement from former Chamber of Commerce president Charles Gosling. Dr. Brown said in his speech: "Where Charles Gosling makes a positive statement that he believes that I am a 'fantastic man' and that the increased business tourism numbers are being experienced as a direct result of the government's efforts, that line is buried at the bottom of the story".

But Mr. Gosling never said Dr. Brown was a "fantastic man". He said he was a "fascinating character", which is not the same thing. It is true that Mr. Gosling said Government "could claim credit for the increase in business arrivals", and that this was run at the bottom of the story. Why? Because the bulk of the story, which concerned the Government's dealings with the business sector since Dr. Brown became Premier, dealt not with business arrivals or tourism at all, but with the more pressing questions of workplace equity, Immigration and so on. Further, there has never been any suggestion that "government" could not claim credit for increases in business arrivals. The argument was that the Ministry of Tourism could not, and further that Dr. Brown had refused for years to release the business arrivals statistics.

Dr. Brown misquoted this newspaper and takes statements out of context ¿ exactly the same things that he accuses this newspaper of doing to him. He protests too much.

He added of the media in his speech: "These are just a few examples of the press and its dealings with your Premier ¿ with your party ¿ and things are only going to get worse ¿ certainly after tonight ¿" Things are not going to get worse unless the Premier wants them to. It would be easy to decide to respond in kind to a Premier who has already declared "war" on the media. But that would do the people of this country and the readers of this newspaper a disservice. This newspaper will continue to report on the affairs of this Country and the general election fairly and accurately and without fear or favour. It will do so under the threats of injunctions and libel suits and whatever other pressure is brought to bear. And it will do so because the people of this country deserve fair and accurate information.

It will do so because this Country is more important than one man or one newspaper. The evidence lies on this very page. Dr. Brown devoted his entire speech on Saturday to an attack on the media. This newspaper could have chosen to ignore his vicious attacks. But we are printing it in full, misquotes and all. What could be fairer than that?