Vigil marks 100th day for BBC reporter

Thousands of journalists around the world will observe a vigil today marking 100 days since the kidnap of BBC reporter Alan Johnston…

Thousands of journalists around the world will observe a vigil today marking 100 days since the kidnap of BBC reporter Alan Johnston in Gaza.

Johnston was abducted on March 12 and efforts to secure his release since then have proved fruitless.

Journalists working in BBC and other newsrooms across the world are being urged to pause for one minute at 2.15pm to remember the correspondent, and his parents will release 100 balloons in his honour.

The militant group Army of Islam has said it kidnapped Johnston and has demanded that Britain free Muslim prisoners, particularly the Islamist cleric Abu Qatada.

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The groups issued a video of him on June 1 in which he said he was being treated well and criticised the British military presence alongside the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Journalist union the NUJ urged fellow reporters to "spare a thought for Alan" and also said it planned to deliver letters on Wednesday to the Palestinian authorities and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett urging them to "redouble their efforts to secure Alan's release".

Johnston, a Scot who turned 45 in captivity in May, is the only Western correspondent based full-time in the Gaza Strip. None of several foreigners seized in Gaza in recent years has been harmed. None had been held as long as Johnston