Kristiaan Yeo

Kristiaan Yeo
Occupation(s)	Journalist, Presenter, Newsreader, Correspondent
Employer	CCTV News for CCTV America

Kristiaan Yeo is a television journalist who was a freelancer for CCTV News[1]^[failed verification] for CCTV America, as the network's Toronto correspondent.[2]

He was the first and only English-language resident correspondent to cover Canada for Chinese state television.[3]^[failed verification]

Career

In 2013, Yeo reported from the polar bear capital of the world, Churchill, Manitoba for a series on climate change [4] and in 2012 reported from Tahrir Square during the Egyptian presidential election, 2012[5]

Prior to joining CCTV News, Yeo was part of the on-air team during the 2012 Summer Olympics for BBC London. He was the station's newsreader during Danny Baker's notorious final show.[6]

On May 2, 2011, Yeo broke the news of Osama bin Laden's death on Sky News Radio in a special bulletin syndicated to 280 stations around the world.[7]

While at Sky News, Yeo covered the Pride of Britain Awards, interviewing the leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, broadcaster Piers Morgan, actor Warwick Davis, boxer Amir Khan and singer Cheryl Cole. He was the first reporter to interview Westlife for Sky News following their split[8] and the channel's 84th Academy Awards nomination coverage.

In 2015, Yeo was terminated from his contract with CCTV for reckless and abusive behaviour towards the crew members of the newscasts. During a travel assignment to Montreal, Yeo physically struck his cameraman. China Central Television and the contracted field crew company, Feature Story News, were both aware of this incident. Helen Searls and Emily Carpeaux of Feature Story News, and Hakan Ozsancak of China Central Television all agreed to ignore this severity of the situation and let Yeo off with a warning.

Months later, while recording reporter stand ups, Yeo can be seen aggressively throwing kicks towards his cameraman and yelling and swearing profusely. Months later, his cameraman refused to keep working with Yeo, and was wrongfully terminated. It wasn’t until the raw video of Yeo’s standup outtakes were discovered by Feature Story News, Yeo was terminated by China Central Television. Yeo was poised to relocate at a Los Angeles correspondent for CCTV. Due to the verbal and physically abusive material being discovered, Yeo never made his debut as a Los Angeles correspondent.

Since then, Yeo has never worked in TV news.

References

1. "CCTV America, CCTV News - CCTV.com English". cctv.cntv.cn. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
2. "CCTV America initiates new programming". Sacramento Bee. 6 February 2012.^[permanent dead link‍]
3. "Chinese state TV starts American service this week". Yahoo News. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014.
4. "Bears on the brink: Polar bears in global oil gateway CCTV News - CNTV English". english.cntv.cn. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
5. "Audioboo / Live 2-way report from Tahrir Square for LBC 97.3". audioboo.fm. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
6. "Axed Danny Baker delivers on-air rant at his BBC London bosses | Media | The Guardian". theguardian.com. November 2012. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
7. "Audioboo / 2/5/2011 - Sky News Radio - Breaking News - Osama Bin Laden's death". audioboo.fm. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
8. "Westlife On Split: We Lost Hunger For Music". news.sky.com. Retrieved 2014-02-01.