Government TV

Writing on Progressive Minds, 30strong argues that cost of CITV, the Government's new TV station, is justified because its programming is cultural, not partisan. His comments echo those of Premier Ewart Brown at the channel's launch, who said, "On this platform culture takes centre stage, not politics".

I haven't watched CITV for long enough to say whether that's the case or not. The only time I turned it on, I caught ten minutes of a turgid interview with Wayne Perinchief about the Workforce Equity Act. That was certainly political, but I have no idea how representative it is of the channel's output. Since we were told that one of the reasons for CITV was to allow Bermudians to hear more than one side of the story, however, I doubt that its aims are solely cultural.

Nevertheless, even if CITV's schedules were filled with nothing but cultural programming, it wouldn't matter. The Government's job is to run the country, not to produce television. Leave that to the private sector, which has the resources to do a better job and the financial incentive to do it more efficiently.