The Royal Gazette (Bermuda)

The first issues of The Royal Gazette, Bermuda Commercial and General Advertiser and Recorder were published in January, 1828. The company bore no relation to an earlier publication named the Bermuda Gazette and Weekly Advertiser founded by Joseph Stockdale in 1782 nor an earlier Royal Gazette founded by Mr Edmund Ward in 1809. Its founder Donald MacPhee Lee, an immigrant to Bermuda from Prince Edward Island in Canada,[1] served as editor until his death in 1883, whereupon it was operated by his son and later his daughter. Part commercial printer and part newspaper, the company acquired its Royal title serving as the 'King's Printer' in Bermuda and as publisher of official notices.[2]

The first issue of The Royal Gazette included a statement that "The pages of the Royal Gazette will never be profaned by the scandals of private malice or the bitterness of party contention; but will be devoted to extracts from the most approved literature of the day and to the best original compositions that can be obtained within the Colony."[2]

From 1900 the paper was published twice a week. The Royal Gazette Company Limited was formed after the newspaper was bought by Mr John Foggo Eve from the Lee family in 1904. Following an amalgamation with the competing Colonist newspaper in 1921, The Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily became a daily newspaper. The name was shortened to The Royal Gazette in 1947.[2]

A Sunday edition was started in 1948, which continued until the competing afternoon daily Mid-Ocean News was purchased in 1962 and reduced to a weekly in 1968. The Mid-Ocean News eventually ceased publication in October 2009.[3]

• Donald MacPhee Lee from 1828[2]
• Gregory Vose Lee from 1883
• Roseannie Lee Heyl from 1898
• John Foggo Eve from 1904
• A.M. Purcell from 1921
• E.T Sayer from 1939
• William S Zuill from 1969
• W.E. Hopwood from 1972
• David L. White from 1976
• William J.S. Zuill from 1998, followed by consultant editors Jeremy Deacon and Tim Hodgson
• Dexter Smith from 2015 [4]

The Royal Gazette is owned by The Bermuda Press (Holdings) Ltd which is a publicly traded company on the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

The Royal Gazette has been the protagonist in several legal cases protecting freedom of expression and independent/free press in Bermuda.

• Hector -v- The Royal Gazette Ltd., Civil Jurisdiction 1980: No. 56 (Ruling dated April 3, 1980) which alleged libel arising from the publication of correspondence that made accusations regarding a magistrate.
• Ewart F. Brown -v- Bermuda Press (Holdings) Limited, Civil Jurisdiction 2007: No. 196 (Ruling dated November 6, 2007)[5] which sought to suppress the publication of articles relating to an alleged Bermuda Police Service investigation into the affairs of the Bermuda Housing Corporation. The ultimate decision by the Privy Council affirmed the principle that the media cannot be prevented from publishing news that is in the public interest, even if that news may later be challenged through a libel action later on.

• List of newspapers in Bermuda

• The newspaper's official website
• Archival issues of The Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily, available in the Digital Library of the Caribbean