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 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
Virgin Islands Party (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. In March 2015 it was announced that Mr Leonard was parting ways with VINO. • VINO was sued for
defamation 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.
Newspaper sites The website of the
BVI Beacon is ranked on
SimilarWeb as only the 542nd most popular website in the Territory, and the
Island Sun is ranked 720th. ==Press censorship==