Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has made yet another unsubstantiated claim that some local media are agents of foreign entities.
He levelled the claim on his weekly show on NBC Radio on Wednesday.
“And nowadays you see a number of things being written on some online publications. You see an increase in them. And you hear at least one radio station, possibly two — I could tell you they have online publications in relation to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and radio stations, I could tell you here today that they’re being paid by persons who operate out of an embassy in Barbados and one in Dominica, an embassy of a foreign country,” the prime minister said.
He said it was not the embassy of the United States, Britain, Canada or a European Union country.
Gonsalves further said that this alleged embassy was not a Latin American country’s nor a country in the Middle East.
“It’s a country from the Asian continent. And people who going line up to sell the passports are also financing them, financing the opposition forces in the country,” the prime minister said.
“So, sometimes when you hear a man doing a commentary on radio, you think the radio paying he? He paying the radio station, and you know where he getting the money from? From overseas.”
In August 2023, Gonsalves claimed that people who had been associated with Cambridge Analytica and its offshoots had told him why they were targeting him and his government.
He claimed to have “an authentic document with the initials of particular people who are journalists in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and are getting paid.
The prime minister, however, did not disclose these alleged initials.
Gonsalves, 78, who has been in office since March 2021, will seek a sixth consecutive term in office in general elections widely expected later this year, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
Throughout his time in office, the prime minister has remained critical of media outlets and practitioners who he regards as non-supportive of his government.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he seldom holds press conferences, opting to appear on state and private media where the hosts often mollycoddle him rather than engage in probative, journalistic enquiry.
Why am I getting the impression that this pm is very uncomfortable after being leader for 24 yrs. This man is in denial;he’s literally and figuratively losing the choke hold grip he has on Vincentians and he can’t deal with it. Poor guy, he’s grabbing at straws. I knew this was coming. His only hope isn’t up to scratch. It didn’t have to be like this ,Mr Power Hungry. Like ole people say,how yo mek you bed is how yo sleep in it. You go ahead with you winning ways,Sir. My country cries for a true leader.
Why is this such a concern to you, PM, don’t we have freedom of the press and speech anymore? It amazes me the way you always want to silence the press. If they do or say something wrong and slanderous again you or your government then sue them. I don’t see the need for you to be so concerned with who is funding the media or political party, unless it is being done illegally. You can’t fight every battle and ignore the battles of the people. Focusing on uplifting the lives of Vincentians should be your main focus, stop getting side tracked!
this guy is a crone; a yenta
Oh lord, the fossil paranoid, he is seeing the writing on the wall. Forward SVG to better times to your destiny. Out with marxist dictators. It a new time!
Why you always trying to silence the press and others persons who asked you questions that not favoured you and make you uncomfortable.You are to darm thin skin and you love to hit at persons very hard,but what surprises you is that persons now are fed up of your dictator ship and are no more afraid of you,you could have done this in the past 10-15 yrs ago not anymore,just pack up and do like your counterpart Keith Rowley.Do as Sir James give the leadership to someone now or you will be leaving this political arena as the world loss although your regime will be loosing the next general election very badly,you been warn,free SVG you nefarious dictator.
Keep the people poor and dependent on hand-outs. Keep the people jobless, hungry and wanting. Keep the women unkept and lacking good hygiene. Make the people without proper healthcare. Then you will get them to your will. Don’t develop any internal factories. Give them a foreign owned factory where all the wealth goes overseas. Do everything by hand, no machinery. Keep the people down at every turn then you will be in power forever.