Angus Scott, the Voiceover artist who anchored in a fake news viral video on the President and Government of Liberia, has apologized, claiming he was tricked into producing the audiovisual material on the Liberian government.
In the video released recently, Scott, a professional voice actor, could be seen sitting in a news studio armed with green screen technology where he read out a news script backed by video and pictorials of the Liberian leader.
He claimed in the video that “the international community has uncovered a very dangerous ploy by George Manneh Weah to win the next election by rigging it”.
Among other things, the versatile voice artist alleged that “Weah plans to remain in power by any means necessary. This include the recruitment of terrorists as part of his secret army.”
However, following the release of the video several Liberians were taken aback, knowing that the narrative was far from the reality. This also led to a strong reaction from the international community and the Nigerian government, which was mentioned in the video.
In a trail of emails between Scott and a concerned Liberian identified only as Carielle, who endeavored to make inquiry about the authenticity of the video, Scott clarified that he was contacted by someone with username “roniahan” on Fiverr.com—a global online marketplace for freelance services to produce five videos.
In his reply to Carielle’s inquiries, Scott wrote, “I must say that I am quite shocked and upset to see what’s happened here. I was contacted on one of the main freelancing websites by someone who was literally just a user (there is no contact details on the site) and sent me a script to produce.
“This is fictional breaking news, and ‘this is make believe’. I do a lot of dramatic/fictional pieces regularly of all sorts of types quite similar in nature, so to me it was nothing unusual and I didn’t question it,” he explained.
He indicated, “He sent me a second script yesterday which was even more forceful than the first and went to great length, listing very serious allegations against several people. At this point my own suspicions were raised, and after Googling the names realized they weren’t fictional but real people.”
Scott said he is obviously not acquainted with Liberian politics and, as such, he started to ask questions about the ‘fictional’ nature of the script, adding that he immediately cancelled his contract with the person to produce the further five videos having realized that he had been seriously misled about the nature of the material and its usage.
“After my questioning of him, he blocked me, so I am unable even to contact him again,” he stated. “As I do take this very seriously and am extremely upset to be unwittingly used in such a way, if necessary I am happy to produce a similar style video stating that the former video was not a legitimate news broadcast—if that would help,” Scott said.
In addition to his role as a voiceover artist, Angus Scott is also a presenter and audiobook producer. On his YouTube channel, he claimed to have produced many eLearning series, and indicated that he is the voice of several YouTube channels, series and humorous business or fun.