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Paleo journos strike in solidarity for Beeb reporter
Palestinian journalists began a three-day strike yesterday to protest over the "insufficient" response by the Palestinian government to the kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who yesterday entered his fourth week of captivity.
The surprise meter pinged a bit.
Several dozen Palestinian journalists, were joined by a handful of colleagues from the international press, holding placards that read: "Free Alan Johnston" and "Kidnapping is a sin".

The chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), Naim Toubassi, told the gathering: "Where is the government today? Why, during three weeks, can't it free a guest journalist, a British colleague? I put full responsibility on the government."
It takes guts to hold anything but a antiisraeldeathtoamerica rally in the PA. I give them a little credit.
A statement by the PJS described Mr Johnston, 44, who was educated at Dollar Academy and Dundee University, as "a friend of the Palestinians and conveyor of the truth".

And Majed Said, the Ramallah correspondent for Abu Dhabi Television, even threatened to stop reporting on the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, if more was not done. "This is unacceptable for us. We will boycott the coverage of Abbas if Johnston is not released," he said.

With no group claiming responsibility, there is speculation that members of a powerful clan in Gaza City, the Dogmush family, are holding Mr Johnston. According to one theory, both Fatah and Hamas are reluctant to antagonise the heavily armed clan in case factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas resumes.

Jonathan Baker, deputy head of news gathering for the BBC, said: "Each day we are more worried. We don't know who is holding him or why. "We have had no contact directly [with the kidnappers] or with anyone who says they are in direct contact. We have no hard information at all. There have been no demands and no claims of responsibility."

Mohammed Henihen, an official in President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, predicted the Palestinian cause will be badly damaged by the kidnapping. "My fear is that journalists won't visit the Gaza Strip and West Bank anymore," he said. "They will not be able to report the suffering and the truth of what is happening. We need journalists to be here and demand these kidnappers free this journalist."
Posted by: Seafarious 2007-04-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=184772