Canadian journalists rally for BBC reporter abducted in Gaza
Last Updated: Thursday, May 10, 2007 | 2:41 PM ET
CBC News
Hundreds of CBC staff and colleagues from other news organizations gathered Thursday in Toronto to mark the 60th day of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston's captivity and make an impassioned plea for his immediate release.
The crowd filled the sun-drenched Simcoe Place outside the CBC building on Front Street over the noon hour to express their solidarity with Johnston, who was kidnapped at gunpoint near his Gaza City home on March 12.
BBC correspondent Alan Johnston is seen in this undated photo taken in the Gaza Strip.
(Mahmud Hams/AFP/Associated Press)
Johnston, the only Western journalist living in Gaza at the time of his capture, has not been seen or heard from since. The 44-year-old reporter had been working in the turbulent region for three years.
"We should not only be here; we should be outraged because we're here," CBC News anchor and chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge told the crowd.
Mansbridge voiced his support for Johnston's family in Scotland and praised other rallies by journalists around the world in recent weeks. They included simultaneous protests last week by Israeli and Palestinian journalists on both sides of the Gaza wall.
A crowd of CBC journalists and staff, along with colleagues and supporters, gathered outside the CBC building Thursday at a rally calling for Alan Johnston's immediate release.
(Robin Rowland/CBC)
"Today, we're doing it," Mansbridge said. "Let's just hope and let's just pray that the end of all this — and there will be an end to all this — is that we hear another great Alan Johnston story, but this time told by Alan."
'Enough is enough'
Veteran CBC foreign correspondent Brian Stewart said the risks of covering stories in areas of conflict such as Gaza are higher than ever as hundreds of journalists around the world lose their lives on the job every few years.
"We have finally reached the end of the line," Stewart told the crowd. "I can't think of anything more profoundly important than for journalists to come together and say, 'Enough is enough.'"
CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge, right, voices his support for Alan Johnston and his family as Daniel Lak, left, Johnston's friend and the organizer of the rally, looks on.
(Robin Rowland/CBC)
Daniel Lak, a former BBC South Asia correspondent and Johnston's friend who is now writing for CBC News Online, teamed up to organize the rally with the Canadian Media Guild and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. The group defends the rights and freedoms of journalists and works to develop freedom of expression around the world.
Lak told the CBC that his friend was relentless in his dedication to telling the human side to every story in Gaza, making his disappearance even more damaging.
"When I watched Alan on television, he was often talking about the effect on ordinary people … and what it was like for a Palestinian in the 21st century," Lak said.
"That's what we're not getting with Alan missing."
Patrick Martin, former Middle East bureau chief for the Globe and Mail and one of the speakers at Thursday's rally, told CBC News Online: "If we want to understand the people, and explain to our readers and our listeners and our viewers what's happening in a place like Gaza, you need to be there first-hand."
Johnston 'one notch better': Tremonti
CBC Radio host Anna Maria Tremonti paid tribute to Johnston's relentless patience and "being one notch better," telling the crowd how the BBC reporter once spent hours waiting for more details on an Afghan village outside Kabul that the Taliban claimed to have captured.
Long after other colleagues had packed up and left, a Taliban spokesman finally admitted to Johnston that they hadn't actually taken the town.
Tremonti added that more awareness must be raised to the dangers that local reporters face in conflict areas, as their abductions and killings are often overlooked by Western media organizations.
"We need to make a fuss when any journalist disappears and when any journalist is in trouble, and that's why today is important," Tremonti said.
As the rally ended, the crowd came together behind a giant banner that read "Free Alan Now!" as a photograph was taken. It will be sent to Johnston's family in Scotland.
High honours, more questions over safety
The rally in Toronto came on the same day as Johnston was named Broadcast Journalist of the Year by the London Press Club for his work reporting from Gaza. The press club noted the decision to nominate Johnston was made before he was abducted.
An Islamic group that claims to be holding Johnston sent a videotape Wednesday that includes demands to the al-Jazeera Arabic news channel.
The videotape, which was sent to al-Jazeera in Gaza, contains no new photos of Johnston, but shows a photo of his BBC identification card.
It also contains a demand for the release of Muslim prisoners being held in British prisons and the release of a specific prisoner. The group, which calls itself Army of Islam, or Jaish al Islam, made the tape, the authenticity of which could not be verified.
Lak said questions remain after almost two months of silence from the suspected abductors before the videotape's release.
"It makes us very cautious," he told CBC News. "We really want to know more. We want to know if it's true that we can get our colleague out."
