boston.com
With the return of ABC's Bob Woodruff to Iraq, and Jill Carroll to the Mideast, and the confession by self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that he was the one responsible for the 2002 beheading of Daniel Pearl, the extreme dangers facing journalists in Iraq have been getting a lot of attention of late (and rightly so). The spotlight, however, has shifted to Gaza in recent days, where there is still no word on BBC reporter Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped at gunpoint ten days ago and hasn't been heard from since. Johnston has been the BBC's Gaza correspondent for the last three years and the only foreign journalist from a major media organization based there.
Yesterday the British government added its weight to the search; foreign secretary Margaret Beckett has reportedly "raised the issue" with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. At the same time, Palestinian journalists have gone on strike in a gesture of solidarity to protest the kidnapping.
Kidnappings of journalists in Palestine are not uncommon, nor historically as deadly as they have been in Iraq: 14 journalists have been abducted by gunmen in Gaza since 2004 and all were released unharmed, including two Fox news journalists who were kidnapped last summer. However, Debkafile is reporting that this may not be just another kidnapping by gunman groups trying to gain attention, but a tactic to compel the Israeli government to raise the price it is willing to pay for the return of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit (one of the kidnappings that ostensibly launched last summer's Israeli attack on Lebanon). As we said above, it's been ten days without a word; apparently most in most journalists kidnappings Gaza, the hostages are returned within the first 24-48 hours. So it is a cause for concern.
The mideast is not the only place journalists need fear for their lives: Russia has been rated the second most dangerous place for journalists after Iraq by a watchdog group. Thirteen Russian journalists have been murdered since January of last year, not including the recent and very suspicious death of Ivan Safronov earlier this month.
