Region | Palestinian Territories
BBC correspondent Alan Johnston is 'OK'
The British Broadcasting Corporation said Monday it has received assurances that correspondent Alan Johnston, kidnapped in the Gaza Strip a week ago, was "OK," but didn't know where he was being held.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:37 May 3, 2009
- Image Credit: BBC
- Alan Johnston was kidnapped on March 12 in Gaza.
Gaza City: The British Broadcasting Corporation said Monday it has received assurances that correspondent Alan Johnston, kidnapped in the Gaza Strip a week ago, was "OK," but didn't know where he was being held.
Middle East Bureaux Editor Simon Wilson, in the company's first news conference since the abduction, said the BBC had
no direct contact with the kidnappers, and didn't know what the abductors' motives were.
"We are receiving assurances that people believe he is OK," Wilson said. "We are grateful for those assurances,
but we are disappointed that we still don't have any firm knowledge of his whereabouts seven days after he was
kidnapped."
Johnston was headed for his apartment in Gaza City when four masked gunmen snatched him from his car in Gaza City.
Wilson said the BBC thought Johnston was being held in
Gaza.
Johnston, of Scotland, had been reporting from Gaza for the past three years.
Earlier BBC had said it is increasingly concerned about correspondent Alan Johnston, one week after his disappearance in the Gaza Strip.
Middle East bureau chief Simon Wilson said he was disappointed there was no firm news, adding it was time to redouble efforts to find him.
It now seemed certain that the reporter had been abducted, he added.
On Saturday Palestinian journalists demonstrated outside parliament in Gaza City in support of the correspondent.
Palestinian Prime Minister Esmail Haniya of Hamas has condemned the abduction and said he has ordered security
forces to search for the kidnappers.
Johnston was the latest in a string of foreign journalists to be abducted in Gaza.
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