Christian ministry lauds journalist who was expelled from North Korea

Christian ministry Release International has given praise to the journalist who went to North Korea to cover the real news but was detained then expelled from the country.

"It's the job of the journalist to speak truth to power. It's the job of the Church to do exactly the same," said Release International's Andrew Boyd in an interview with Premier. "Credit to him [Wingfield-Hayes] for telling it the way he saw it while he was still there in a position where he could be detained - and was. What Release and others would say to North Korea is: if you want the respect of the international community, give respect to your citizens. Show them the respect they deserve as human beings by granting them freedom - especially freedom of religion."

BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes along with cameraman Matthew Goddard and producer Maria Byrne were in North Korea prior to the Workers' Party Congress to cover a group of Nobel prize laureates who were doing research. On Friday, just as they were about to leave the country, the three were taken into custody by North Korean authorities in Pyongyang. They were questioned for eight hours and were told to sign a statement.

"(Wingfield-Hayes) was separated from the rest of his team, prevented from boarding that flight, taken to a hotel and interrogated by the security bureau here in Pyongyang before being made to sign a statement and then released, eventually allowed to rejoin us here in this hotel," said John Sudworth, another BBC correspondent, as quoted by Reuters.

The North's government was apparently not pleased with the way the journalist presented the nation.

"They were speaking very ill of the system, the leadership of the country," said O Ryong Il, secretary general of a National Peace Committee.

Prior to his detention, the journalist reportedly said that a pediatric hospital looked like a setup, with children looking healthy and with no real doctors in sight. He also did a report in front of Kim II Sung's statue, and he already surmised that the country's officials felt that they were reporting disrespectful things about the founding leader.

"We are very disappointed that our reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been deported from North Korea after the government took offence at material he had filed," said a BBC spokesperson. "Four BBC staff, who were invited to cover the Workers Party Congress, remain in North Korea and we expect them to be allowed to continue their reporting."

Wingfield-Hayes and his team arrived in Beijing, China from Pyongyang on Monday.

The Workers' Party Congress started on Friday but, according to the Financial Times, only on Monday was a group of 30 selected reporters allowed a short visit. The other 100 journalists were reportedly taken on tour to see different sites like an electric cable plant, some hospitals, a textile factory, among others.