In its latest cartoon, VINO portrays the sitting governor, John Rankin speaking about persons of African descent with disdain.

The cartoon further characterises Governor Rankin commenting that black persons should be impoverished beggars.

“Dem black folks got too much … Dem all should be poor and beggin’ we for more vaccine,” it read.

This cartoon uses aggressively controversial and racial satire to comment on current issues between the BVI and UK such as the ongoing Commission of Inquiry as well as Britain’s vaccine contributions to the territory, among other things.

History of controversy

Just under a year ago, the news site had published a controversial cartoon of the then-Governor Augustus Jaspert kneeling on the neck of talkshow host Claude Skelton Cline.

That toon was inspired by the circumstances surrounding the May 2020 death of 46-year-old African-American, George Floyd, who was killed on the streets of Minneapolis, USA when a caucasian police officer kneeled on his neck for just under 9 minutes.

VINO’s cartoon was met with public outrage and resulted in at least one company suspending advertising with the local news website.