There are presently five principal British Virgin Islands news websites publishing

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

focused upon current affairs in the Territory: * BVI News * BVI Beacon * Virgin Islands Platinum News * Virgin Islands News Online * 284 Media The British Virgin Islands only has two newspapers (and those are both published weekly), and no full-time television station. Of the two functioning newspapers in the Territory (the ''

BVI Beacon ''The BVI Beacon'' is a weekly British Virgin Islands newspaper founded in June 1984 and published on the island of Tortola. The ''Beacon'' is owned and published by local businessman Russell Harrigan, also the publisher of ''Business BVI''. Th ...

'' and the ''

Island Sun ''The Island Sun'' is a weekly newspaper in the British Virgin Islands . Founded on 23 June 1962, it is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the British Overseas Territory. The Sun is published weekly by Sun Enterprises (B.V.I.) ...

'') both also have news websites that are updated regularly. In the neighbouring

United States Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...

, the main daily, the ''

Virgin Islands Daily News The ''Virgin Islands Daily News'' is a daily newspaper in the United States Virgin Islands headquartered on the island of Saint Thomas. In 1995 the newspaper became one of the smallest ever to win journalism's most prestigious award, the Pulitz ...

'' reports on some stories developing in the British islands. Some news sites in the Territory allow a great deal of latitude to the public to comment anonymously upon articles (referred to, slightly misleadingly, as "

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

s" locally). In a community as small as the British Virgin Islands anonymous comments often indicate inside knowledge in relation to news items, or serve as a ''

vox populi ( )Vox Populi
. Oxford Diction ...

'' in relation to developing stories.

Main news websites

Relative popularity

The relative popularity of the main online news sites in the British Virgin Islands ebbs and flows over time. As at 7 April 2017 online web traffic services ranked them as follows:

BVI News

BVI News arguably has the highest profile of the three mainstream sites outside of the Territory, ranking higher than all of its competitors internationally on both SimilarWeb and Alexa (within the British Virgin Islands it ranks second on both ranking sites). It is not viewed as politically affiliated. It does not publish the names of any of its senior staff or journalists. The parent company of BVI News is Media Expressions Limited. Economics commentator Dickson Igwe is a regular contributor to BVI News (although he also frequently contributes the same articles to the ''BVI Beacon'' in print).

Virgin Islands Platinum News

Virgin Islands Platinum News was originally named "BVI Platinum", and is often still referred to as such. Although the firm's website address reflects its original name, it now uses the Government approved national moniker. The news site has been criticised as pro- National Democratic Party, and anti-

Virgin Islands Party The Virgin Islands Party (VIP) is a political party in the British Virgin Islands. It is presently led by Acting Premier Natalio Wheatley. It is the oldest active political party in the British Virgin Islands, and it has won more general elect ...

. The news sites present senior reporters are Melissa Edwards and Gordon French. Platinum News does not publish details of its ownership online, but the web address is registered to Platinum Investors Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. In 2013 BVI Platinum was accused of breach of ethics by local politician Archibald Christian in relation to the publication of a leaked Government report. In 2017 BVI Platinum won the award for best online news site at the Best of the BVI Businesses Award Ceremony.

Virgin Islands News Online

Virgin Islands News Online (often referred to simply as "VINO", or sometimes "the Yellow Site" or "the Esteeme Site"). It is alleged that the site is align with the political viewpoint of the

(VIP). There is open conflict between the news site and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), because of the news sites frequent challenges of the policies of the NDP. VINO is also critical towards Police Commissioner David Morris. The website is associated with Julian Willock, who served from 2010 to 2012 as permanent secretary to Minister of Communications and Works. The current Editor in Chief of VINO is Reuben J. A. Stoby, and the senior reporter is Nikolai J. Earle. According to its home page, VINO is owned by Advance Marketing and Professional Services. The domain name itself is registered in the name of an ownership privacy protection organisation. VINO has been part of a number of controversies during its existence. * Doubts as to whether its marketing manager John E. Leonard actually exists, or whether he was a cipher for other parties, have been expressed both in other media, and in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

. In March 2015 it was announced that Mr Leonard was parting ways with VINO. * VINO was sued for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

by politician and ophthalmologist, Dr Hubert O'Neal. A court initially awarded Dr O'Neal US$20,000 but that was later made subject to appeal. VINO accused other new sites of a hidden agenda in relation to the reports, and alleged that the lead journalist of a competitor might be racist. * In 2013 VINO refused to pull an article after the Magistrate threatened to initiate contempt of court proceedings. * Also in 2013 VINO was criticised for showing pictures of a bloodied murder victim but many readers and the public came to their defense. The news site strongly defended its actions. * In April 2016 Minister of Education

Myron Walwyn Myron Walwyn (born February 22, 1972) is the former Minister of Education and Culture and a Territorial At-Large Representative of the British Virgin Islands. He was elected as an "at-large" representative in the 2011 British Virgin Islands gener ...

sued the news site for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

Newspaper sites

The website of the ''BVI Beacon'' is ranked on

SimilarWeb SimilarWeb Ltd. is an Israeli web analytics company specializing in web traffic and performance. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, the company has 12 offices worldwide. Similarweb went public on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2021. History The c ...

as only the 542nd most popular website in the Territory, and the ''Island Sun'' is ranked 720th.

Press censorship

From time there have been criticisms of the British Virgin Islands government in relation to allegations of press censorship. This may be a by-product of having much of the online news reporting originating from politically affiliated sources. Allegations of attempted press censorship have usually focused upon one of two concerns. # The first relates to the controversial Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, 2014, which was criticised both within the British Virgin Islands and aboard as an attack on press freedom. Amendments to the legislation to permit "public interest" publication of information somewhat mollified those criticisms. # The second area of criticism relates to unfulfilled promises to pass a Freedom of Information Act in the British Virgin Islands. Despite multiple promises to introduce such legislation, to date not even draft legislation has been issued for public consultation. The Government has blamed a busy legislative timetable. Governments have increasingly been at pains to say that they have no intention of muzzling the press. External reviews consider that "The media enjoys freedom of the press and speech" in the Territory.

Footnotes

{{Reflist, 30em News websites by country British Virgin Islands websites