Changes

|title=Kidnapped And Other Dispatches

|author=Alan Johnston

|buy=Yes

|borrow=Yes

|pages=160

|publisher=Profile Books Ltd

|date=November 2007

|isbn=978-1846681424

}}

You must remember Alan Johnston's kidnapping. He spent almost four months as the prisoner of the Army of Islam, a paramiliatry group in Gaza earlier this year. After a vigorous campaign by the BBC, worldwide condemnation, lots of diplomacy and, eventually, intervention by Hamas, once they had taken full control of the Gaza strip, he was released. Something about Johnston's abduction created a groundswell of support for this relatively obscure journalist. His elderly father made a heart-stoppingly fine and dignified television appearance, nobody had a bad word to say about him - even the extremists on either side of the Middle Eastern debate - and the obviously genuine solidarity - '' our own correspondent'' - at the BBC all came together to make his eventual release a truly celebratory event. I shed a tear, I don't know about you.

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