UN: Release kidnapped BBC journalist in Gaza
UNESCO chief calls on captors of Alan Johnston to free him three weeks after he was kidnapped at gunpoint from Gaza City. Meanwhile Palestinian press goes on strike in protest of Johnston's abduction, refuse to cover Pelosi's meeting with Abbas
The head of the United Nations body mandated to protect press freedom called on Tuesday for the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston who was abducted in the Gaza Strip three weeks ago (March 12th).
“When a journalist is abducted, the whole of society is taken hostage,” UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said in a statement.
“In view of this increasingly disturbing situation, I call on the authorities to do their utmost to obtain his release as quickly as possible. I wish to commend the determination and courage of journalists who continue to do their work despite the growing frequency of such abductions,” he added.
“We must all mobilize to put an end to these heinous practices that constitute a serious threat to media professionals and also to freedom of expression. All too many abductions have taken place recently, in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in Gaza. Not all these kidnappings have ended in bloodshed, but they remain intolerable and must not go unpunished.”
Protesting journalists refuse to cover Pelosi meeting in Ramallah
Meanwhile Palestinian journalists boycotted Tuesday's meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Ramallah as a protest against the Palestinian government's failure to free Johnston. Some 70 Palestinian and foreign journalists staged a demonstration in Ramallah's center, holding placards reading, ''Free Alan.''
Palestinian journalists rally for Johnston in Ramallah (Photo: AP)
The journalists have been on strike since Monday in the third such stoppage by Palestinian media since Johnston's kidnapping, and reflected growing anxiety about his fate.
In Gaza City about 700 Palestinian journalists, intellectuals and aid workers _ many with their mouths symbolically sealed with tape _ protested outside Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's office against what they said was their government's failure to secure Johnston's release.
''We feel that the government and the presidency isn't taking this issue seriously,'' said Shuhdi Kashef, a leader in the 400-member journalists union. Haniyeh came out to face the protesters and said he was doing his best to end the abduction. ''The journalists and government are (fighting) in the same trench,'' he said. ''We are not taking this issue lightly.''
According to Reporters Without Borders, 14 foreign journalists have been kidnapped in the Gaza Strip since August 2005, with none of the abductors caught or prosecuted. In Afghanistan, the journalist Adjmal Nasqhbandi is still held hostage whereas the Italian journalist he was accompanying, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, was released by their captors on 18 March, UNESCO said.
As to Iraq, there is no news on seven journalists and four assistants who were recently kidnapped there. Over 50 journalists and media employees have been abducted in Iraq since 2003, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
