- Jon Williams
- 20 Jun 07, 10:21 AM
Exactly 100 days ago, my colleague Alan Johnston was abducted in Gaza. Today, his family, friends and colleagues across the 91Èȱ¬ will pause for two minutes at 1415 BST - the moment he was abducted fourteen weeks ago - to think of Alan.
Across Britain and around the world, Alan's friends will hold up a picture of Alan to show solidarity with him and to demand his immediate release. I invite you to join us - you can print off your own picture of Alan by clicking on this pdf link.
In the 100 days since he was kidnapped, more than 150,000 of you have signed our , many thousands more have added your comments to our Have Your Say . I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you who've done so - many of the messages are incredibly moving, the show of support overwhelming.
The last three months have been a dreadful time for his family and friends – but particularly for Alan. We’ve always known Alan is special. But the last 14 weeks have shown us how special he is to many of you. Your support has buoyed us up through our darkest days - Alan's family particularly have drawn strength from your support.
The last few days have seen a number of reports from Gaza - as you'd expect we continue to follow developments very closely.
Jon Williams is the 91Èȱ¬'s world news editor
- Vicky Taylor
- 20 Jun 07, 10:17 AM
We made a mistake yesterday, as the . As is our regular practice, we added an e-mail on the bottom of a story about a military offensive north of Baghdad, asking for people in the area to get in touch with us.This is the sort of thing we do every day, on scores of news stories, and through this device we get many authentic first-hand accounts from all over the world. In Iraq it has been invaluable in finding out from people living there what has happened.
However, yesterday we used the phrase "have you seen any troop movements" in this request for information. The Telegraph and some others wrongly interpreted this as an attempt on our part to seek out military detail. We phrased it badly, and as soon as we realised what we had done - a couple of hours - we removed the form.
I want to emphasise, though, that we published no e-mails on this subject. We certainly did not intend to seek out any military detail and wouldn't have published it if we had received it. It was our mistake to use that phrase, when we were simply asking for eye witness reports. I apologise for confusion or upset caused, and thank those of you who wrote in so swiftly to point out our mistake. The 91Èȱ¬ takes its responsibilities regarding the security and safety of the armed forces extremely seriously. We would never publish information which would endanger their safety.
Vicky Taylor is editor of Interactivity
Daily Telegraph: "The 91Èȱ¬ was accused last night of risking the safety of British forces in Iraq after trawling for information on troop movements in the war-torn country." ()
The Guardian: John Lloyd writes that, in order for the 91Èȱ¬ to lose its reputation for bias, it needs to accept more than two sides to every argument. ()
Metro: "A worldwide vigil is to be held for kidnapped Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston on the 100th day of his captivity." ()
Daily Mail: Reports that presenter Nick Ross is to leave Crimewatch, criticising the corporation of having an obsession with younger presenters. ()
