The Telegraph reported David Comissiong, the deputy chairperson of the national commission on reparations, wants to see descendants of slave-owning families pay damages.

“This is at the earliest stages. We are just beginning,” Comissiong said. “A lot of this history is only really now coming to light.”

But Commissiong clarified The Telegraph’s report in an op-ed published by Barbados Today on Monday that this isn’t exactly the case and claimed the paper is “putting words” in his mouth.

“It is clear to me that Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper has commenced upon a mission to concoct its own narrative about Barbados’ Reparations Campaign.”

Comissiong explained in his op-ed:

“A good example of the technique is the Daily Telegraph journalist asking me if Barbados intends to pursue a Reparations claim against the family of someone named Benedict Cumberbatch, and when one answers that one does not know who Benedict Cumberbatch is nor anything about his family’s supposed involvement in slavery in Barbados, that answer is reported as my having asserted that Barbados has not ruled out pursuing a Reparations claim against Mr Cumberbatch and his family!

And then suddenly there is a big international news story about Barbados pursuing a Reparations claim against the said Benedict Cumberbatch!”

Comissiong also “set the record clear about Barbados’ and [the Caribbean Community’s]  Reparatory Justice campaign” in his editorial.

Cumberbatch, who played plantation owner William Ford in the critically acclaimed film 12 Years a Slave, previously expressed regret over his ancestor’s ties to the slave trade. He even revealed that his mother urged him not to use his real name over fear that he would be the target of reparations claims.

In 2006, Cumberbatch starred as William Pitt the Younger in the biographical drama film Amazing Grace, which told the story of William Wilberforce’s fight to eliminate slavery in the British empire. The actor shared that the role was a “sort of apology” for his ancestor, per the Toronto Sun.