Smear campaign hits new low by altering BBC footage

In a heavily miscalculated attempt at undermining the Government, Dominica’s United Workers’ Party has spent the last month making baseless allegations regarding the nation’s Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme. Indeed, faced with one of the most transparent and efficiently-run economic citizenship programmes in the world, the Opposition has been clutching at straws, concocting a missing US$1.2 billion in CBI revenues and belittling conscientious stakeholders involved in the real estate arm of the Programme.

This week however, supporters of the Opposition hit a new low, going so far as to publish a video that alters footage from the BBC and the United States Department of Justice. The tactic is scandalous and evidences nothing but desperation.

The video in question combines a BBC report, a video of US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, and pictures of Dominica and Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit. The aim of the video is to suggest that the United States has launched an investigation into Dominica’s ‘missing’ US$1.2 billion. However, both the BBC report and the video with US Attorney General Lynch refer to a conspiracy to launder more than US$1 billion from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund – they have nothing to do with Dominica, Dominica’s Prime Minister, or Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment Programme.

The well-informed will recognise this news patchwork from July 2016, when Attorney General Lynch filed civil forfeiture complaints to recover moneys misappropriated from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund – the largest single action ever brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.

Supporters of the Opposition are resorting to blatant, and indeed shameful, fake news tactics – likely encouraged by Lennox Linton’s intellectually dishonest EC$1.2 billion accusation. If Linton were a responsible politician (and a responsible Dominican), however, he would call for this laughable cut-and-paste video to be taken down. He would perhaps even realise that videos such as this one do the Opposition more harm than good.

The BBC is among the world’s most respected broadcasting companies. How will the BBC react when it sees that its own footage is being used to spread fake news in Dominica? How long will it take the BBC to take matters into its hands and create real news reports on the Opposition’s false information campaign strategy?

Lennox Linton is also already personally under fire, as he is reportedly being investigated for his connection to Terry Barron and Chris HP, with at least one of these connections involving bribery allegations. It would not be the first time a Caribbean politician is investigated in Europe for corruption. In 2017 for example, Antigua and Barbuda's Tourism Minister lost his Cabinet position after being arrested at London’s Gatwick Airport and questioned by the Metropolitan Police in a bribery probe.