91Èȱ¬

A big part of our efforts to maintain the pressure for the release of Alan Johnston, the 91Èȱ¬ correspondent who disappeared in Gaza six weeks ago, has been to keep the issue in the public eye. We've had massive support in this regard from the international media community - and especially from the Palestinian journalists in Gaza itself and in the West Bank, who have mounted almost daily demonstrations to call for Alan's freedom.

Today the - this time to Erez, the main crossing point between Gaza and Israel. On the other side of the crossing were assembled the massed ranks of the international media - rallied by the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem for their own major demonstration in support of Alan.

For most of them, Erez is now the furthest they feel they can safely venture since the abduction - a reminder of the unique and courageous nature of Alan Johnston's work: the only foreign correspondent permanently based in Gaza, determined to bring the story of life there to there to the outside world.

It was a strange occasion in some ways - with one group of journalists filming another group of journalists demonstrating their support for Alan and also publicly reaffirming the importance of the Gaza story and their ability to report it. All the talk was of the rumours and speculation that have swirled around Gaza and elsewhere since the first day of what is now a 45-day ordeal.

It's the sort of talk that fills the vaccuum left by a lack of any hard information, of which there has been next to none. On the Palestinian side of Erez, I told the journalists that I had met members of Alan's family in the UK, and they were very aware of, and deeply grateful for, the huge efforts that they had made on Alan's behalf.

The response was immediate. "You tell them," they said, "that we regard Alan as a part of our family too. And we won't rest until he's released."

Their support, and that of the international media loudly sending the same message from their demonstration a few hundred yards away on the other side, has heartened and strengthened Alan's friends and family in these last long weeks - proof, if proof were needed, that even journalists have a heart.

NB. If you want to show your support for Alan, you can join the 52,000 people . If you have a blog or run a website, you can add this button (instructions here). Thank you.

The difficulties and dangers of reporting what’s happening in Iraq are well known. The 91Èȱ¬ has done better than most at chronicling events in the four years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein – not least by maintaining a presence in Baghdad throughout that time, something few other media organisations have been prepared to do. But it’s a constant frustration that we can’t travel freely throughout the country, reflecting the different experiences of ordinary Iraqis in their own villages and neighbourhoods.

Carrying out opinion polls in Iraq, like , is an effective way of addressing that problem. This is the third poll we’ve commissioned in partnership with ABC News of America and other media organisations. Like the last two, it’s thrown up a wealth of fascinating detail about the views of the Iraqi people and the circumstances in which they live.

What emerges is a genuine nationwide picture. More than 2,000 people were questioned in more than 450 villages and neighbourhoods in every province of Iraq. Each of them answered more than 50 questions about their personal circumstances and their hopes for the years ahead.

, at the end of 2005, found them generally hopeful about the future – about improved security and the government they were about to vote into office.

The story this time is one of disappointment and disillusion. Most people feel the new government has delivered little in terms of basic essentials like access to electricity, fuel or fresh water, and lacks the will to take the decisions that will make a genuine difference. Security, or lack of it, remains a key concern. Although the presence of coalition forces is detested, most people think they should stay until some of these things have improved.

This time, we’ve been able to break the figures down to compare the responses given by the Sunni and Shia people who took part in the poll. The results are striking. On a whole range of important issues, we see diametrically opposing views.

Attitudes to the execution of Saddam Hussein offer a good example of this polarisation. Asked whether it was appropriate and was helpful to the future of Iraq, opinion was more or less evenly divided. But the breakdown on religious lines shows that almost all Shias think it was helpful and almost all Sunnis think it wasn’t.

There’s some very rich material in the detail of the poll findings. Taken together, they make a significant contribution to our continuing efforts to report this important but uniquely demanding story.

There's been a lot of hullabaloo about 91Èȱ¬ pay rates this year, both salaries for on-air talent () and executive bonuses (). So I suppose it's not surprising that the figures revealed in the press today about correspondents' salaries ("" - Independent) are of interest too, although they are of a rather more modest order.

I'm one of those who has to set those salaries, and there are always many factors to take into consideration. These include experience, level of contribution to the news output, performance and profile. The hardest area to put your finger on is talent - that element of individuality, personality and star quality which people bring to the air waves. Difficult to define and subjective perhaps - but you know it when you see and hear it.

One thing that absolutely isn't a factor is the sex of the correspondent. The figures might seem to point that way, but I think it's more that they reflect that a majority of our senior correspondents are men, with a high level of experience. Which is an issue in itself.