GAZA (PIC)– The Palestinian journalist bloc has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the BBC reporter Alan Johnston who was kidnapped Monday night in Gaza city at the hands of unknown gunmen.
The bloc in a statement on the issue described Johnston as a “distinctive” reporter who has been working for years in Gaza and enjoyed good relations with all Palestinian parties.
It warned of employing the kidnap of journalists as a “blackmailing card” to achieve personal and partisan interests or even to destroy the Makkah national agreement.
The bloc asked all Palestinian factions to unequivocally condemn the act through disowning anyone connected to the kidnap.
The bloc blatantly charged those kidnapping journalists with complementing the role of Israeli occupation in blacking out facts.
For its part the Palestinian journalists syndicate denounced the series of kidnapping reporters describing Johnston’s abduction as “unethical” and ran contrary to Palestinian traditions and laws.
It urged the interior minister and all concerned security apparatuses to put a final end to this phenomenon and to prosecute the “criminals” who kidnapped Johnston.
The society of Palestinian media forum also denounced the kidnap describing it as “very serious” and opining that the incident aimed at derailing the march of national unity.
The society appealed to the PA presidency and government to unveil those tampering with the country’s security.
Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip Fawzi Barhum had earlier lashed out at those kidnappers charging that the “criminal act” aimed at creating a state of “confusion and fear amongst foreigners living in Gaza so as not to publish the real image of the Palestinians’ suffering as a result of Israeli occupation”.
He said that such incidents only harmed the Palestinian people’s reputation and struggle for independence.
Barhum asked the kidnappers to free Johnston without any conditions attached and not to harm him adding that the BBC reporter was the guest of “our people and government”.
