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Fmr VICE News journalist awarded for exposing Jagdeo’s alleged corruption
Former VICE News journalist Isobel Yeung who received the Foreign Press Association’s Journalist of the Year Award for her documentary – Guyana for Sale
Kaieteur News – A recently surfaced video shows former VICE News journalist Isobel Yeung receiving the Foreign Press Association’s Journalist of the Year Award for her 2022 expose, ‘Undercover in Guyana.’
In 2022, the VICE News documentary – Guyana for Sale – premiered with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo as the main character. “Everything in this country is under the table. The whole country is like that.” This is one of the many statements made during the documentary.
In the documentary, Jagdeo referred to Chinese businessman Zhi Rong Su, his former friend and tenant, as “a good friend of ours” during an interview with the VICE News journalist.
Su had implicated Jagdeo in bribery and corruption. However, when the full documentary aired and Jagdeo learnt of the allegations against him, he threatened to sue the Chinese businessman for $50 million for defaming his character but reportedly could not locate him to serve the lawsuit. In November 2023, Jagdeo revealed that he had found Su.
Last year, Kaieteur reported that Jagdeo was awaiting a default judgement after Su failed to appear in court.
In her acceptance speech during the event held in 2022, Yeung thanked her producer, Belle Cushing, for being the brain behind the production. She added, “I actually just want to thank our Chinese colleagues, who really are, you know, put more at risk than anyone else to do this story. Who went undercover multiple times, who really, you know, put a lot at risk, both in terms of exposing themselves and just, you know, a lot of personal risk involved, and whose names we can’t even disclose, but who we really would not be able to tell the story about. So, thank you to anonymous people who we can’t say the names of but thank you.”
In VICE News undercover investigation, the Chinese businessman was recorded saying that bribes would have to be paid to the Vice President for them to be guaranteed contracts in Guyana. He could be heard on the recording too telling the team that Jagdeo only accepts “cash.” The documentary also showed that Su took the “fake Chinese investors to Jagdeo’s home to meet him.
Jagdeo’s defence is that he had repeatedly denied the allegations in the extended news report which was aired on the US television network Showtime and posted on YouTube. The allegations had triggered calls by a number of civil society groups and the opposition for a full independent investigation of the serious corruption allegations, which have all been denied by the vice president.
“Vice News came into my house to catch me doing something illegal and taking a bribe… and you couldn’t do that in my most unguarded moment…They have done this around the world with leaders they got taking bribes… they are never going to find anything of that nature with me,” Jagdeo had said.
The documentary was viewed by thousands of Guyanese in Guyana and the diaspora. Additionally, the extended YouTube edition of the report has attracted more than two million views.
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