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To Our Own Correspondent: ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ marks 45th birthday of Alan Johnston
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The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ marks the 45th birthday of Alan Johnston, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Gaza correspondent, with a special edition of From Our Own Correspondent called To Our Own Correspondent delivered by Jon Williams, World Editor, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News.
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Alan was abducted at gunpoint 66 days ago.
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The programme will broadcast today (17 May) on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 (11am BST) and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service ().
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A transcript of the programme is available below:
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To our own correspondent, Alan
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It is 66 days since ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ correspondent Alan Johnston was abducted by a group of armed men in Gaza. Thursday is his birthday.
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I had been foreign editor for less than a month the first time I went to Gaza.
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The Erez Crossing – the frontier with Israel – is a 20-minute walk from one side to the other, but one which turns the clock back 20 years.
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Think Checkpoint Charlie at the height of the Cold War – it is the front line in the Arab–Israeli conflict and it bears the scars of war to prove it.
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On one side sits the state of Israel's finest modern technology: the searching, scanning, and scrutinising are all done by robots.
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On the other, a man with a pencil writes your passport details into a battered exercise book.
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Erez and Gaza: the place where two worlds collide.
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For the past three years, this has been the domain of Alan Johnston.
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Gaza is one of the most difficult places on earth in which to work.
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Hard enough at the best of times, but for Alan, his friends and his family, the past nine weeks have been the worst of times.
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For 66 days he has been incarcerated, who knows where.
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Alan was abducted at gunpoint on 12 March.
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Later his family and friends had first to hear a statement telling the world of his death, then to see a video making demands in return for his life.
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Every day brings new rumour and speculation but precious few facts.
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History's witnesses
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Alan is one of more than 200 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ correspondents – an extraordinary group of people who remain in the world's trouble spots just as everyone else is getting out.
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For 75 years they have been eyewitnesses to history.
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Required often to be brave, dedicated and courageous, they endure hardship and danger because they believe a story needs to be told.
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But the bomb, the kidnap, the gunshot are the correspondent's worst nightmare. They are the foreign editor's too.
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I have learned more in the last few weeks about hostages – and kidnappers – than in 40 years of reading thrillers and watching films.
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I have met people who – once Alan is free – will slink back into the shadows and hope we will forget their existence.
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I have formed friendships that will endure long beyond this ordeal, learned to marvel at the resilience of Alan's family and been humbled by the response of the audience – the listeners in Africa, America and Asia who have written in their thousands to pledge their support for the man whose reporting has brought Gaza to their doorstep.
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Then there are those who have joined our demand for Alan's immediate release.
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Demonstrations
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Two weeks ago, a large group of Palestinian journalists demonstrated near the wall – the barrier, the fence, call it what you will – that separates Israel and the Gaza Strip.
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They called for Alan to be released and urged the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniya to take action to get him freed.
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A few hundred metres from them, on the other side of the frontier, another group of journalists was doing the same on the Israeli side of the border.
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At its heart, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is an organisation more comfortable with reporting the news than making it.
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But for nine weeks, we have sought to keep Alan's ordeal in the public eye – helping to organise petitions, posters, and rallies.
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And not just in London.
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Far beyond the Middle East, colleagues have rallied to Alan's cause – in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Brussels and Bangkok.
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In Kabul, Paris, New York and Jakarta, Alan Johnston's case has been taken up by those who know him – and those who do not.
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Birthday wish
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Alan is a quiet, modest man – someone who never sought the limelight.
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But when all this is over, amid the embarrassment at the hullabaloo, I bet he will reflect how – in a region where people agree on few things – his plight has brought individuals together.
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From the divided Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah, Arab and Israeli, East and West – they have all been united in demanding Alan's freedom.
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Nine weeks on, one thing I have learned is that most hostages actually do know what is going on – incarceration does not necessarily mean they are cut off from the outside world.
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I was told one hostage in Iraq heard from his kidnappers that they had just seen his wife on the television pleading for his release.
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Terry Waite famously listened to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service during his ordeal in Beirut.
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And in Gaza, I dare to dream that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is the kidnappers' channel of choice.
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For more than 50 years on this programme, the news has been broadcast from our own correspondents.
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Today – with apologies to you – I want to send a message to one of our own.
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Day 66 of Alan Johnston's captivity is also his 45th birthday. Most likely there will be no candles or cake.
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But my hope is that somewhere, somehow, Alan will be able to listen.
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His family, his friends, his colleagues all miss him. We want him home. Our birthday wish is his immediate release.
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Happy birthday Alan.
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Notes to Editors
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For a full list of events see: Events planned to mark Alan Johnston's birthday.
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From Our Own Correspondent, Thursday 17 March, 11am BST, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4. Please check the for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World Service transmission times.
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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News Publicity
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