BBC crew detained in North Korea

Three BBC crew who travelled to North Korea to cover the Workers Party Congress are being expelled from the country.

Kim Jong Un

A North Korean guide reads through their country's leader Kim Jong Un's speech published in the local newspaper with a foreign journalist on Sunday, May 8, 2016 Source: AAP

A BBC reporter, a producer and a cameraman have been detained in North Korea and are being expelled from the country, the BBC has said.

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were detained on Friday as they were about to leave the reclusive communist state.

Mr Wingfield-Hayes was questioned for eight hours and made to sign a statement by North Korean officials, the corporation said.

The team has now been taken to the airport.
All three were in Pyongyang before the Workers Party Congress. They were accompanying a delegation of Nobel prize laureates on a research trip.

Another BBC journalist, Stephen Evans, the Seoul correspondent, is still in Pyongyang.

He said the North Korean leadership was displeased with their reports.

Mr Evans said Mr Wingfield-Hayes was singled out over some of his reports for TV and online.

Speaking live to Radio 4's Today program he said: "They were, as I understand, at the airport waiting to get on a flight.

"Just as they were about to board the flight, Rupert was held back.

"He was then taken to a hotel, a separate hotel to where we were and interrogated for eight hours."
An interrogator told Mr Wingfield-Hayes he had been the official to prosecute Kenneth Bae - a Korean-American missionary who was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour in the country.

Mr Evans said that Mr Wingfield-Hayes was told to sign a confession confirming that his work had been inaccurate and the authorities were particularly concerned about two incidents.

In one, Mr Wingfield-Hayes had questioned whether a visit by VIPs to a hospital had been staged by the authorities to make it seem better than it was, and another one when a cameraman was asked to delete pictures.


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2 min read
Published 9 May 2016 3:42pm
Updated 9 May 2016 4:02pm
Source: AAP


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