Johnston boosted by campaign to free him

Freed reporter Alan Johnston has said he knew of the tremendous campaign to secure his release thanks to snatched reports on the BBC world service.

Speaking in Jerusalem before he returning home to the UK he said: "I remember the first two weeks of that experience, very much the toughest as you are coming to terms with solitary confinement and the whole disaster that had engulfed my life at that point.

"And, I remember thinking vaguely, maybe BBC would organise some kind of local campaign in Gaza to try to keep people on my side.

"And then I had the one lucky break in my incarceration. I got hold of a radio that gave me the BBC world service and I realised we were not just talking about a local campaign in Gaza.

"It was just so weird, the feeling that I could do nothing and the whole, whole world was rooting for me."

Mr Johnston's release after 114 days in captivity comes after a late-night deal between the ruling Hamas Islamists and the Army of Islam, the al-Qaeda-inspired group which kidnapped him on March 12. Palestinian security officials say he was snatched by four masked gunmen in a white car.

Describing his ordeal he said captivity was like being "buried alive" and that there were "waves of depression".

He said: "I literally dreamt many times of being free and always woke up back in that room."

Mr Johnston's parents arrived at the BBC to welcome their son home. Earlier they said they were "absolutely overjoyed" at his release.

His father said he had a very brief telephone conversation with his son. He said: "All he said was 'hello dad', and I said 'hello son. How are you? Are you all right?' He said 'I am 100 per cent' and then the phone was cut. That's all we've heard from him so far."

Speaking at his first Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, Gordon Brown welcomed the release and said Mr Johnston is "a fearless journalist whose voice was silenced for too long".

Tory leader David Cameron told MPs it was "fantastic news that the journalist, who turned 45 in captivity, is on his way back to his family".

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