Reporters protest BBC correspondent's abduction

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Palestinian lawmakers called off a rare parliamentary session on Wednesday after entrance to the Gaza building was blocked by a protest over the abduction of British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent Alan Johnston. The demonstration was a part of a three-day strike by Palestinian media to protest the government's inability to find Johnston, who was kidnapped on March 12 in Gaza City. Around 40 Palestinian journalists, aid workers and intellectuals, some with tape symbolically placed over their mouths, blocked lawmakers from attending the session. "We've had no word on Alan, on the twenty-third day of his detention," said Sakher Abu Aoun, a leader in the journalists union. "We are shamed that we have nothing to tell his elderly parents. The executive and legislative bodies must be responsible for the safety of journalists."