Media House Faces Backlash Over Footage
Guavaberry Media Inc. is under fire after posting a video of a December 17 fatal shooting in Purcell Estate on its Facebook page, footage that had previously circulated privately on WhatsApp. Residents criticised the outlet for widening the clip's reach without a graphic-content warning, while the media house defended its decision and urged focus on the territory’s broader crime problem.
A local media outlet has drawn strong public criticism after it posted video footage of a fatal shooting on its Facebook page, renewing debate in the British Virgin Islands about media ethics, trauma and how violent crime should be reported. The footage — showing the December 17 killing of a young man in the Purcell Estate area — had reportedly circulated in private WhatsApp groups and other closed social media spaces.
On Wednesday, January 7, 2026, Guavaberry Media Inc. shared the clip on its public Facebook page, significantly expanding its potential audience, residents told BVI Live. Several social media users said they only first saw the footage after it appeared on Guavaberry’s page. "Speaking for myself, I didn’t see that video until it was posted on Guavaberry Media Inc. page.
Posting something on Facebook versus circulating on WhatsApp is far more triggering… This is the World Wide Web," one commenter wrote. Others asked why a recognised news organisation would amplify material that had already leaked privately. Criticism focused on the absence of a graphic-content warning and on the potential harm to the victim’s family and the wider community.
One resident wrote emotionally about the victim’s twin brother and urged people to consider the human cost rather than the spectacle. Another suggested alternatives to publishing the killing itself, saying the outlet "could’ve blurred the body of the victim… Enlarged freeze frames of the murderers would’ve been much more beneficial." Guavaberry Media owner Cindy Rosan defended the decision to publish the video, saying she was doing her job as a journalist and that public attention should be directed at the territory’s rising crime concerns rather than media coverage.
The incident has catalysed broader discussion in the BVI about where to draw the line between informing the public and retraumatising a small community where victims and their families are well known. Calls for clearer editorial guidelines, use of content warnings, and more sensitive presentation of violent imagery have emerged on social media.
Police continue to investigate the Purcell Estate killing and the other murders recorded in the territory last year. Despite those incidents, official statistics and regional assessments show the BVI finished 2025 as a relatively low-crime jurisdiction and retained its reputation as one of the safer territories in the Caribbean.
The debate prompted by the video underscores tensions between transparency, public interest reporting and community well-being in the territory.
Primary source: BVI News