Alan Johnston released

It's just been announced that Alan Johnston has been released after being held for 114 days. It may be too much to expect that this will be followed by other conciliatory moves in the region (and the world) but we can still hope as we thank those who arranged and agreed to the release.

Alan Johnston

Alan is the BBC journalist who was abducted in Gaza on 12 March this year.

While any abduction gives cause for concern it's a sad time for freedom of speech when journalists such as Alan are punished for trying to report situations, no matter how complex, as they see them.

An online petition, which has to date received more than 82,000 signatures, is here . To find out more , click on the button with Alan's photo.