–in VICE News documentary; Jagdeo to take legal action against Su Zhi Rhong for ‘slanderous claims’

UNITED States-based media house, VICE News has failed to provide any evidence linking Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo to collecting bribes in a documentary it released on Sunday titled, ‘Guyana for sale’.

In the episode, which features a 15-minute segment on Guyana, several accusations were made, but no evidence was provided to show that Dr. Jagdeo was receiving bribes.

Prior to its release, the Vice-President had posted an entire sit-down interview he gave to a VICE News team. During the interview, he said he would meet with persons who are interested in investing in Guyana, but has never been offered a bribe or accepted any.

In the VICE News piece released on Sunday, Dr. Jagdeo can be heard saying: “No, no, no! I’m not getting involved with business! Su is my friend; he gets all the support. Su deals with all the agreements; I don’t. My thing is that I’m in government, so I assist from the government side.”

This reportedly stems from a visit the VICE News team made to Guyana and met with a Chinese businessman, Su Zhi Rhong, who reportedly said that he accepts bribes on behalf of the Vice-President.

In the piece, after a sit-down with the Vice-President, Su was purportedly heard making the claim to an undercover member of the VICE News team that he accepts bribes for the Vice-President.

Late last week, while at a press conference, the Guyana Chronicle had asked the Vice- President about his thoughts on foreign media houses like VICE News coming to Guyana, and whether he was suspicious or concerned about their agenda.

Dr. Jagdeo, in responding, said some of these media houses have a view of developing countries, and when good things happen in these countries, they have a different portrayal of it.

It is for this reason, he said, that the interview he did with VICE News was posted Online, as this news organisation has a tendency to ‘cut-and-splice’ interviews.

Against this backdrop, the Vice-President highlighted a previous issue in which ‘VICE’ was involved, whereby it photoshopped smiling faces into a genocide picture in Cambodia.

“I played the whole interview; if you just look back at the interview, and I don’t expect anything much, the reason I did that is because they have a tendency to cut and take you out of context. I didn’t realise that until afterwards when I read about VICE,” Dr. Jagdeo said.

With that, he mentioned that ‘VICE’ would not have been able to do that with his interview, as he’d released the entire recording. “I released the whole thing. So, where all the accusations about Su collecting bribe for me and everything else; everything is there in the public domain,” he said.

The Vice-President, in that sit-down interview, when probed by the VICE News reporter, fervently denied all of the accusations of corruption that were made against him.

Meanwhile, at that press conference last week, Dr. Jagdeo warned persons about lobbyists, pointing out that recently, two persons were locked up for collecting money from persons under the guise that they can arrange meetings with him.

Following the release of the VICE News documentary, Dr. Jagdeo, on Sunday, told several sections of the media that he will be taking legal action again Su, who is his tenant, for the slanderous claims he (Su) has made against him.