The Guardian has been accused of maliciously painting the Virgin Islands as corrupt. Photo: Internet Source

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) has termed an article written by The Guardian a UK based news agency as ‘’imbalanced, very salacious and in some instance very insulting to the people of the Virgin Islands.’’ Photo: Government of the Virgin Islands.

The Guardian published an article on Tuesday December 9, 2025 entitled ‘’Walking into disaster: the narcotrafficking scandal that blew up the BVI’’ highlighted details about the major political downfall in the Virgin Islands involving former Premier Andrew A. Fahie. Photo: Internet Source

The Guardian published an article on Tuesday December 9, 2025 titled: 'Walking into disaster: the narcotrafficking scandal that blew up the BVI' in which it highlighted details about the major political downfall in the Virgin Islands involving former Premier Andrew  A. Fahie and his alleged involvement in a drug trafficking and money laundering scheme with US agents, leading to his 2022 arrest, subsequent conviction in 2024, and broader implications for VI governance and its reputation.

The Guardian should refrain from printing imbalanced articles

The premier stated while responding to a question by the media on the article during the press conference on Friday, December 12, 2025, that, "I think the Guardian, which represents itself as a credible media organisation, should refrain from printing articles, which are so, so imbalanced."

He said this article seeks to present the Virgin Islands in a very demeaning way, "One which I do not recognise."

"So let me just say to you that anyone who's read that article from The Guardian, I don't think it's representative of reality. It doesn't speak about all of the progress that we've made just yesterday, Stephen Doughty [UK OTs Minister] announced, you know, and the government is not crazy. They're not going to announce that the Order in Council is being revoked unless there was some substantial work that was done in the Virgin Islands to strengthen whatever challenges that came about."

Hon Wheatley stated that the way in which The Guardian described the Virgin Islands is "lacking balance."

"We certainly had some things that we had to improve on, but I don't think the situation was as they described it."

Achievements of the legislature

The premier highlighted the achievement of the legislature, stating that "We just celebrated 75 years of our legislature. Over the course of our legislature, we have some wonderful stories told, and the people of the Virgin Islands, by their very nature, you know, are good, decent people, and don't deserve to be described in the terms that The Guardian article has described us."

"And those people don't know us. They don't know us. They haven't lived among us. People who come and live among us, a lot of times they choose to stay because they love it here so much, so it can’t be so bad," the premier added.