Freedom of the press - PLEASE HELP

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Hugogo said:
Impractical or not if it can help it should be done.
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But it wouldn't, so they shouldn't :)

Its like people who buy fair trade coffee off some ginger idiot instead of working towards a policy change to help those affected : its purely something to satisfy your conscience under a misleading flag of 'help'.
 
Hugogo said:
I'm not condemning that in the slightest what [the BBC and other news organisations] are doing is fantastic :)!

I just feel that with this effort placed for one person what happens if this massively influential body were to apply this step to resolution with every person taken.
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It would be a very good thing.

Alan Johnston was a very brave man doing an important job reporting from a very dangerous place. Remember that what he was doing was reporting; just that. So far as I know, nobody has suggested that his reports were a pack of lies, that he was supporting one side against the other or that he had wounded or killed anyone. He is just a journalist.

I only hope that he is released soon and that ALL news organisations always speak out in future when journalists reporting from dangerous places are obstructed, threatened, imprisoned or killed.
 
These are some pictures I came across that are related, they are not necessarily my own views



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silversurfer said:
These are some pictures I came across that are related, they are not necessarily my own views.
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Depressing images, thanks for them anyhow.


As to the people who ask what good will come of adding a link to your web-site, here is what the BBC has to say:
As most readers of this [BBC] website will know, the BBC is very concerned for the safety of our correspondent Alan Johnston who was abducted in Gaza on 12 March.

More than 35,000 people have signed a petition calling on anyone who has any influence on the situation to increase their efforts to secure Alan's immediate release.

Today we are adding this button to BBC News blogs. We are inviting anyone who runs a blog or website to do the same to show support for Alan. It's a simple but, we hope, effective way of spreading the message.
. . .
Thank you for your help, it's much appreciated.

If you do publish this link on your blog or website, feel free to post a comment here to let us know.
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Is adding such a button to your web-site or blog likely to do any harm? I guess that the BBC thinks not.
Does it offer the oxygen of publicity to terrorists? I can't see how it does.
Will it make it more likely that other journalists will be abducted? Again, I can't see why it would.
Are the abductors (whoever they might be) getting positive publicity? No.
Are they getting their message publicised? No.


Most significantly, in order for us to understand the world in which we live, it is vital that journalists should be able, as safely as possible, to report freely from places of conflict and danger.
 
Shackley said:
Does it offer the oxygen of publicity to terrorists? I can't see how it does.

Are the abductors (whoever they might be) getting positive publicity? No.
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How are they not getting publicity? :confused: As for it being 'positive' - that doesn't matter. The adage about there being no so such thing as bad publicity surely applies here.
 
dirtydog said:
How are [the abductors] not getting publicity? :confused:
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So who are these people who are getting this publicity?
dirtydog said:
The adage about there being no so such thing as bad publicity surely applies here.
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I disagree with this trite and oft quoted observation, as would many people - e.g. Gerald Ratner amongst others. Incidentally, you are aware of the full text of this quotation, are you?


A rally is being held by journalists at the main crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip over the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston. Members of the Foreign Press Association in Israel have gathered on both sides of the Erez checkpoint.

On the Palestinian side, journalists, photographers and cameramen chanted "Free, free Alan!". At the checkpoint, protesters called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya to take action to ensure he is released.

Alan is the only foreign correspondent living full time in the Gaza Strip. In doing so for three years he showed his personal commitment and that of the BBC to report the story of Gaza and its people in a fair and balanced way he added.

The BBC's deputy head of newsgathering, Jonathan Baker, also on the Israeli side of Erez crossing, said he was making a direct plea to those who are holding Mr Johnston to release him immediately. "His only offence has been to expose himself to personal danger because of his strong desire to bring the story of Gaza to the outside world," he said. BBC Link
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silversurfer said:
They've only got 69000 signatures from people in support for release of this dude. :o

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6518185.stm
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Yes, kinda sad really when you see the amount of support garnered by some of the petitions on the petitions.pm.gov.uk site.

It may be that people don't know about the petition, it may be that people don't care that acorageous journalist has been abducted or it may just be that people are reluctant to put in their name and email address for fear of it getting harvested.
BBC said:
All our pages are permanently searchable by most standard search engines. Your comments may be published on any BBC media.
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The al-Jazeera news channel has received a tape purportedly from the kidnappers of the BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston.

It includes certain demands and shows pictures, including one apparently of Mr Johnston's BBC identity card. It was delivered to al-Jazeera in Gaza and was made by a group calling itself Jaish-e-al-Islam (The Army of Islam).

The BBC said it was investigating the contents of the tape. Mr Johnston, 44, was seized in Gaza City on 12 March. BBC Link - 09-May-07
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Show support - Use your blog to support Alan Johnston - here's how - keep him in the News.

Sign the online petition - 82,000 have done so already.
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We'd love to help but we are all too busy binge drinking, fighting, fornicating, being rude, hating foreigners and all the other garbage you prompted us to watch in the 7 sins of England. Why did you even bother asking this dog like race of people to help you when you think we are but scum. Revolting hypocrisy.
 
Alan Johnston named broadcast journalist of the year

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was abducted in Gaza nearly two months ago, has won a major journalism prize at a London awards ceremony. He was named broadcast journalist of the year by the London Press Club for his work reporting from the Gaza Strip. BBC Link - 10-May-07
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Show support - Use your blog to support Alan Johnston - here's how - keep him in the News.

Sign the online petition - 82,000 have done so already.
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Apart from post in this thread shackley what have you exactly done to try to help this guy? :confused:
 
How the hell can he be named Broadcast Journalist Of The Year? For a start it's only May! Secondly he hasn't done much reporting recently has he?
 
Leading members of Britain's Palestinian community are to call for the immediate release of kidnapped BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston.

The main Palestinian representative in the UK, Manuel Hassassian, will take part in a day of solidarity in London for the reporter.
. . .
The event is being held at a Palestinian restaurant in west London (the Maramia Café in Notting Hill). It aimed to "send a clear message to his kidnappers that the Palestinian community... are appalled by this act", organisers said. Restaurant owner Mohammed Zomlot, who is from Gaza, said that the Palestinian community in the UK wanted to support Mr Johnston. "I feel that we are the people who really should care about Gaza, and who should care about Alan," he said.
. . .
On Sunday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman condemned the kidnapping in the first official comments from Tehran since it happened.
BBC Link
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It does seem that the people who kidnapped Alan may not be representative of or supported by many people, anywhere in the world.
 
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