HC Deb 03 May 1950 vol 474 cc204-5W
109. Mr. Russell

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs how many British journalists have been expelled from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and her satellite countries during the past five years; and from which countries.

Mr. Younger

In answer to a Question on 21st June, 1948, my predecessor informed the House of the circumstances in which four correspondents were excluded from Czechoslovakia and I am sending the hon. Member the relevant extract from the record. There are two further cases. In May, 1948, Mr. Christopher Buckley of the "Daily Telegraph" was refused a visa to reenter Czechoslovakia and in January of this year Mr. Eric Bourne of the Kemsley Press and Exchange Telegraph Service in Prague was served with an expulsion order by the Czechoslovak authorities. No reason was given. This makes a total of six British journalists.

In the case of Poland three journalists have been excluded, two by expulsion and one by refusal of a re-entry visa. The former Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in answer to a Question in the House on 25th November, 1946, informed the House of the circumstances in which Mr. Derek Selby, at that time correspondent of the "Sunday Times" in Warsaw, was expelled, and I am also sending the hon. Member the relevant extract from the record. In April of this year, Mr. Vincent Buist, Reuter's correspondent. was expelled by the Polish authorities on charges of "unobjective reporting." In September, 1949, Mr. Denis Weaver, at that time "News Chronicle" representative, was refused a re-entry visa to return to Poland.

In the case of the Soviet Union, where ther2 are no British Press correspondents other than that of the "Daily Worker," and in the case of the other Eastern European countries within the Soviet orbit, no journalists of British nationality have been expelled, although an American citizen, Mr. Robert Magidoff, who represented the National Broadcasting Company in Moscow and also acted as local correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph agency, was expelled in 1948 on charges of espionage.