All of this was a world away from Istanbul, Turkey, and the issues of the assembly of the International Free Press Institute, the global network of editors and media executives dedicated to furthering and safeguarding press freedom and promoting the free flow of news and information. Jean and I have attended the assemblies for years. This year, a major concern of IPI was the case of Alan Johnston, a BBC correspondent who was kidnapped on March l2 by masked gunmen while on his way home from his office in Gaza City.

Johnston, the only Western correspondent who lived and reported full time from Gaza City, was still missing when IPI convened in mid- May in Istanbul and the organization’s first order of business was to condemn the kidnapping and demand his release. At a special briefing by BBC officials, the news was grim because nothing had been heard of Johnston and no group had taken responsibility for his kidnapping. An Israeli journalist even said he thought that Johnston had been kidnapped by mistake and killed. I suggested that an IPI mission might be in order to go to Gaza City, investigate, and publicly call for his release. (I was well aware of the efficacy of timely IPI missions, as a member of an IPI mission to Korea in 200l to get three publishers of the country's largest daily papers out of jail. We visited the publishers in jail in their jail uniforms, a sight I never hope to see again. We were ultimately successful in getting them released and back on the job. They had been tossed in jail on trumped up tax evasion charges because their papers had the audacity to criticize the Korean government.)

A few days later, in London, we walked by the BBC headquarters building and saw the two huge pictures of Johnston that the BBC displayed on both sides of their massive front door. He was the first BBC correspondent ever to be kidnapped and the first ever to get this kind of dramatic and photogenic tribute. But there was still no news of Johnston.

On Saturday June 2, a video of Johnston was released to an Islamic website. It was undated, but it was the first sign that he was alive after his kidnapping. According to the New York Times account, he was wearing a red sweatshirt and appeared thinner but healthy, with his normally clean shaven head showing longer hair above his ears. That, the Times said, was the best indication that the video was relatively recent.

HIs captors were a shadowy group called the Army of Islam. They demanded that Britain release a jailed Islamic militant who has been accused of being a key leader of Al Queda in Europe.

Yesterday June 4, I received an email from IPI headquarters in Vienna with the good news that it was sending a high level delegation to the Palestine Authority to advocate for the release of Johnston. "Together with their Palestinian counterparts, the delegation will meet with journalist organizations, civil society groups, senior government representatives and other parties in Ramallah to advocate for Johnston's release and to discuss related press freedom issues," the statement said.

The members of the mission were carefully chosen, no Americans and no Brits, but two Palestinians and leading journalists from countries that could have some impact in the turmoil and danger of Gaza City. The delegation is scheduled to hold a press conference to report on the findings of the mission at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 6, at the Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah. I will keep you posted. B3

P.S. The delegation is led by Johann Fritz, IPI director, and Piotr Niemczycki, IPI chairman, publisher, Gazeta Wyborcaza, Warsaw, and a famous underground journalist in the days of Communist Poland. Other members of the delegation are: Boris Bergant, vice president of the European Broadcasting Union and Deputy Director-General, RTV Slovenia; Kadri Gursel, foreigh news editor, Milliyet, Istanbul; Ismai'ila Isa, publisher, the Democrat, Kaduna, Nigeria; Viktor Kocher, Middle East correspondent, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Zurich, Switzerland; Catherine Power, IPI Middle East/North Africa Press Freedom Coordinator. The local coordinators are Radwan Abu Ayyash, former chairman, Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, and Daoud Kuttab, director, Institute for Modern Media, Al Quds University, Ramallah, Palestine. Let us wish them the best of luck.

P.S. l: Back at the Legion of Honor, let me note that the weekend organ concerts are one of the joys of San Francisco. They are one hour, starting at 4 p.m.,
on Saturdays and Sundays, and are free after museum admission. Go.