Dozens of foreign and Palestinian journalists demonstrated at Gaza’s border with Israel on Wednesday to demand the release of a BBC reporter missing, and presumed kidnapped, in the territory for 45 days.
Scotsman Alan Johnston (44), the only foreign correspondent based full-time in Gaza, has not been heard of since his car was found abandoned on March 12.
Jonathan Baker, deputy head of newsgathering for the British public broadcaster, said the BBC still had no hard information on Johnston’s fate.
”We make a plea directly to those who are holding Alan, to set him free. His only offence was to expose himself to personal danger because of a strong desire to bring the story of Gaza to the outside world,” Baker said.
”He has suffered enough. Let him go.”
Johnston’s disappearance, by far the longest of several kidnappings of foreigners in the Gaza Strip over the past year, has forced many media organisations to suspend visits by foreign staff.
”This place is as far as many of us now feel safe to go,” Simon McGregor-Wood, chairperson of the Jerusalem-based Foreign Press Association, told about 100 journalists gathered at the Erez Crossing terminal on the Israeli side of the frontier.
”We need to go to Gaza,” McGregor-Wood said. ”We need to … tell its people’s stories. We need these kidnappings to stop.”
Several dozen journalists, mainly Palestinians who have campaigned actively within the enclave for Johnston’s release, held a similar demonstration on the Gaza side of the border.
Palestinian government officials have on several occasions given assurances that Johnston is well, despite a claim earlier this month that an al Qaeda-linked group had killed him.
It remains unclear which of the many armed groups in the crowded and violent coastal strip may be holding him or why.
The kidnapping and killing of foreigners, including journalists, has become an increasing hazard for media covering conflicts around the world, notably in Iraq where foreign journalists are severely limited in their ability to travel. — Reuters