Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands - On Friday May 9, 2025, the Premier Dr. Natalio Wheatley held a press conference to bring the Territory up to date on the Commission of Inquiry (COI) regulations. During said press conference, the Government’s live via GIS, encountered technical difficulties. JTV (media) who was also at the press conference and live at the time, was asked to take over the live on the Government’s behalf.
Our Editor In Chief rose to put her questions to the Honourable Premier. The questions were mostly in regard to the Bank of Asia and were as follows:
- What is the status and impact of the bank of Asia’s bankruptcy in and on the BVI, on financial services, in particular with the Asia market?
- To your knowledge, Was the bank of Asia given $50 million dollars in 2018 by the previous ndp government as a good will gesture that we would take out the required loan with the said bank for the airport development when it was time?
- Given this bankruptcy, will government be able to recoup this money?
The Premier’s responses were along the line of ‘something is happening between the Government and the bank and he is therefore unable to respond, while appearing extremely uncomfortable with the line of questioning.
He also responded to our media house that ‘those were serious allegations’. To which our Editor in Chief responded that they were not allegations, but merely questions.
As is normal, later that day, our Editor went to review the live footage for information and the live was not available. It was no where to be found. A call to affiliated entities of JTV noted that it could have been a Facebook issue, and a YouTube link was sent. However, the YouTube link was also unavailable. Our Editor has made many attempts to understand how and why both videos have become unavailable, with no substantial answers forthcoming.
A scan of JTV’s Facebook page has also come up empty of images initially posted of the launch of the Cane Garden Bay Beach Hotel back in November 2024. Our media house stands to be corrected. However, our recollection of images posted which included past Premier Dr. D Orlando Smith and owner of Bank of Asia Carson Wen at the launch of the Cane Garden Bay Beach Hotel, are now gone from the JTV Facebook page.
On Thursday May 29, 2025, Guavaberry Media set off a string of articles in relation to the Bank of Asia, which has sent the Government and its affiliates into lockdown.
https://www.gbmediahouse.com
Victimization remains a growing concern for democracy in the British Virgin Islands; for citizens, residents and especially media.
Up to press time, the videos remained unavailable on Facebook and YouTube. Facebook has however enforced a new policy of deleting videos after 30 days. However, the Facebook video has been unavailable shortly after the press conference.
