A journalist from BBC and two other staff members were detained in North Korea and expelled on Monday for their reporting, the channel said. BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes was expelled along with producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard.
The correspondent was detained on Friday as he was about to leave North Korea with his staff and was reportedly questioned for eight hours. The team had arrived in North Korea ahead of the Workers Party Congress that began last week.
According to a BBC member Stephen Evans, who is in Pyongyang, the staff's reports on life in the North Korean capital had rattled the hermit nation's leadership. According to Reuters, which cited Chinese media, Hayes was interrogated over his inappropriate description of ruler Kim Jong Un.
O Ryong Il, secretary-general of the North's National Peace Committee, told the Associated Press that the BBC journalist's report "spoke ill of the system and the leadership of the country."
Pyongyang had invited journalists from several international media organisations for the congress that was called by Kim Jong Un, a first in 36 years. However, the journalists were not allowed into the venue where Kim opened the congress, and were instead transported to a wire-making factory in central Pyongyang to "showcase our high technology," according to the Los Angeles Times.
