Alan Graham Johnston was born on 17 May 1962 and is a British journalist working for the BBC.
15 Facts About Alan Johnston
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Alan Johnston has been the BBC's correspondent in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip and Italy.
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Alan Johnston was born in Lindi, Tanganyika, to Scottish parents.
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Alan Johnston was educated at the Dollar Academy, an independent school which is said to be the oldest co-educational day and boarding school in the world, in the small town of Dollar in Clackmannanshire in central Scotland, followed by the University of Dundee, where he graduated with an MA in English and politics.
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Alan Johnston completed a diploma in Journalism Studies from Cardiff University.
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Alan Johnston joined the BBC in 1991, and has spent eight years as a correspondent for them, including in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as well as Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Alan Johnston was in Kabul when Afghanistan was still under the control of the Taliban.
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Alan Johnston was due to be the BBC's full-time correspondent in Gaza until 1 April 2007, and at the time of his kidnapping was the only foreign reporter with a major Western media organisation to still be based in the city.
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Alan Johnston covered many major stories in Gaza for the BBC, including Israel's unilateral disengagement plan in 2005, Hamas winning the 2006 legislative elections, the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict and the Palestinian factional violence of late 2006 to 2007.
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Alan Johnston is highly regarded by the BBC as a respected, experienced journalist, and due to his local knowledge, he was someone other journalists would turn to for information when in Gaza.
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Alan Johnston has worked as programme editor of The World Today and as a general reporter in the BBC World Service newsroom.
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From November 2011 to August 2014, Alan Johnston was the BBC correspondent in Rome.
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From October 2014, Johnston has stated on his Twitter account that he is based in London.
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On 12 March 2007, Alan Johnston was kidnapped by the Army of Islam.
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Alan Johnston was taken to meet Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh before leaving with an entourage of British diplomats to Jerusalem.