Aussie bloggers Jolie King, Mark Firkin detained for flying drone

Jolie King and Mark Firkin used drone photography to show off their travels. It was a mistake.

Two Australians detained in a notorious Tehran prison have been identified as travel bloggers from Perth who were reportedly arrested for flying a drone without a licence.

Jolie King and Mark Firkin have been globetrotting since June 2017, and documenting their travels on Instagram and Youtube.

They started their blog to “inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad rap in the media”.

The couple have travelled through Australia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East and frequently posted photos taken by a drone. They were arrested ten weeks ago, according to The Times.

Manoto TV, a Persian-language broadcaster in London published the names of the bloggers on Twitter, reporting the two were arrested “for flying a drone near the capital”.

“The family says this was a misunderstanding and Jolie King and her fiance, Mark Firkin, were unaware of the Iranian law which bans drone flights without a licence,” the editor of Manoto said, adding that their trial had not yet been held.

The pair’s families said in a statement today: “Our families hope to see Mark and Jolie safely home as soon as possible.

“We have no further comment to make at this stage and ask that the media respects our privacy at this difficult time.’

Ms King was told by the Iranian authorities that she was being detained in hope of a prisoner swap, a source told The Times.

While Iran has not publicly commented on the case, it made clear in April that it wanted to retrieve an Iranian woman detained in the US. British PM Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, are expected to confront Iran over its detention of Britons at a UN meeting in New York this month.

Most recently the couple had posted videos of themselves driving the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan.

Jolie King and Mark Firkin in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

The travellers in Malaysia in 2018.

Ms King is a dual British-Australian citizen while Mr Firkin is Australian.

Their, blog called The Way Overland, detailed their planned trip from Perth to the UK.

“We’ll be blogging the whole trip on YouTube, documenting through pics and blogs on here, Facey and our website,” they wrote on an Instagram post in April.

Jolie King with a local in Jodhpur, India.

They have a patreon platform where people can donate money to their account.

A second British-Australian woman, an academic who studied at Cambridge University, is in solitary confinement after a separate incident, it is believed.

Ms King is being held in the same ward for female political prisoners as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

The bloggers in Bali.

A female academic who holds Australian and British citizenship is also being detained and has ­reportedly been sentenced to 10 years in prison for an unspecified offence.

Another woman, dual Australian-Iranian citizen and Melbourne University demographer Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, was arrested in Iran in December, charged with trying to “infiltrate” Iranian institutions.

She has reportedly been ­released on bail, but has not been allowed to leave Iran while the ­investigation into her case is conducted.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed on Wednesday it was providing consular assistance to the families of three Australians, but refused to provide further information.

It is understood DFAT officials were trying to negotiate the Australians’ release outside the glare of media attention.

Scott Morrison said on Thursday that he was pursuing the interests of the jailed pair, but was cautious about commenting publicly on their plight in Iran.

“These are always very sensitive cases. They are never issues that are addressed well by offering public commentary on them and I note that in at least one of these cases that is a view that has been expressed by family members,” he said in Canberra.

“We will continue to pursue these matters in the interests of the Australians at the centre of these cases and we will do that carefully and in close consultation through our officials who have been part of this process now for some time.

“I will respect the wishes of the family and I will respect the best interests of those citizens.”

The couple were planning to travel for 600 days following this overland route.

With Richard Ferguson, The Times