EGYPT: Journalists demonstrate in Cairo demanding the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston

Journalists in Cairo staged a demonstration on Monday (April 30) to call for the release of missing BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, who is assumed to have been kidnapped. 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. 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. Surrounded by his colleagues from other news organisations on the steps of Cairo's Journalists' Syndicate, BBC Middle East correspondent and Cairo Bureau Chief Ian Pannell appealed once again for Johnston's release. "And we make a plea directly to those who are holding Alan to set him free. Alan Johnston's only offense was to expose himself to personal danger because of a strong desire to bring the story of Gaza to the outside world. He's paid a heavy and undeserved price for his commitment. He has suffered enough, let him go," he said. Since Johnston disappeared 49 days ago no hard information on his whereabouts have surfaced publicly. Earlier this month a militant group claiming ties to al-Qaeda claimed to have killed the reporter, but Palestinian government officials said the reports were false and that Johnston was safe. On Friday (April 27) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was quoted as saying that his government knows the whereabouts of Johnston. At Monday's Cairo protest, the BBC's Arabic Radio Correspondent in Gaza, Fayyed Abu Shamalla, who worked closely with Johnston, said the kidnapping had cut off Gaza to the outside world. "I am able to say that Gaza is now isolated. Not only to journalists but also for foreign aid workers. There was an assassination attempt against the head of one of the foreign aid offices in Gaza and was saved from this after they tried to attack his car. All of this makes foreigners hesitant to come to Gaza," Shamalla said. Around 50 mostly Egyptian journalists attended the demonstration, with many expressing the hope that their participation would make those holding Johnston realise that their actions have no support in the Arab world. Khalil Fahmy, the head of the BBC's Arabic section in Cairo said Johnston's disappearance had highlighted the fact that 2006 had been a remarkably dangerous period for journalists. I think that the year 2006 - even though he was kidnapped in 2007 - but 2006 through to 2007 has been one of the worst years for journalist to be exposed to danger where they might be killed," he said. Many analysts have suggested that Johnston's presumed kidnapping is an indication of the increasingly desperate situation in Gaza, which has been cut off from the outside world by sanctions imposed by Western powers after the Islamist Hamas group won parliamentary elections in January 2006. While in Cairo on April 28, the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said that he and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had discussed Johnston's case and had agreed to deal with the issue "decisively".

ITN Source | May 1, 2007

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