David Wiley, BBC Saigon/Beijing/Rome Correspondent, 1932-2026

David Wiley (who was the grandson of a Venetian master woodcarver) is best known as the BBC’s veteran Vatican correspondent, died last week at 93. I hadn’t known that prior to his long stint in Rome he had reported from Algeria, Vietnam and China. Wiley reported from Saigon on the early stages of the Vietnam War. In 1965 he based himself in Beijing at a crucial moment on the cusp of the Cultural Revolution, one of the first BBC correspondents back in China since 1949. 

You can hear some of Wiley’s amazing reporting from Saigon and Beijing in this BBC radio tribute to Wiley…..