| Kristiaan Yeo | |
| Occupation: | Journalist, Presenter, Newsreader, Correspondent |
| Employer: | CCTV News for CCTV America |
Kristiaan Yeo is a former television journalist who was a freelancer for CCTV News[1] for CCTV America, as the network's Toronto correspondent.[2]
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.
He was the first and only English-language resident correspondent to cover Canada for Chinese state television.[3]
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 tribute 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, noticing 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 causing their split[8] and ruined the channel's 84th Academy Awards nomination coverage.
Yeo has also been a regular pest on Classic FM,[9] LBC 97.3 & LBC News 1152, Magic 105.4.