BBC probing reports journalist was executed

The BBC and the British Foreign Office yesterday said they were urgently investigating reports that kidnapped BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston had been executed.

The journalist was snatched at gunpoint last month, triggering protests and campaigns for his freedom.

“We’ve heard of those reports but we don’t have any independent verification of them at the moment,” a BBC spokeswoman said.

“Obviously, we are deeply concerned about what we’re hearing. We are obviously making urgent inquiries about this because it’s of great concern to us to hear those sort of rumours.

“No group has claimed responsibility, even to say that he was abducted, so we’ve never had confirmation that he was abducted. Obviously, we have to assume that he has disappeared, but there has not been any direct or indirect link by the BBC with any group.”

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the report and are urgently looking into it.”

There has been no word on the fate of Johnston, 44, since he was forced from his car at gunpoint as he drove home from work in Gaza City on March 12.

Johnston, who had previously reported for the BBC from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, became the latest of around 20 foreigners to have been seized in Gaza over the past year.

He has reported from Gaza for three years and was snatched three weeks before his posting there was due to end.

To mark a month since Johnston was snatched, the BBC took part in a ‘day of action’ on Thursday to highlight the plight of their reporter, one of the few Western correspondents to be based permanently in the lawless coastal strip.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week he was “deeply concerned” that Johnston was still being held captive and pledged to do whatever he could to secure his release.