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The father of BBC reporter Alan Johnston appealed
Thursday to his kidnappers to release him immediately, and
poignantly urged his son not to lose hope, a month after his
abduction in the Gaza Strip.
“I would like to say something
to those who are holding you,” Johnston’s father Graham said at
a London press conference, reading from an open letter to the BBC
reporter which started “Hello old son.”
“You have families. Please
think about what this is doing to my family, including in particular
the distress and deep, deep concern Alan’s mother and sister have
had to endure for all these long weeks.
“As I have said
before—please—let my son go, now, today,” he added, flanked by
his wife, daughter and BBC staff.
The letter was publicized as part
of a BBC “day of action,” exactly a month after Johnston’s
capture.
The day included the simultaneous
broadcast of a program on the kidnapping by the BBC, CNN, Sky and
Al-Jazeera, while rights group
Reporters Without Frontiers hung
a huge photograph of Johnston in London’s Trafalgar Square.
BBC director-general Mark
Thompson also held a press conference in
Ramallah and said that
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told him he had “credible
evidence” that Johnston was safe.
--AFP
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