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BBC checks kidnapped reporter tape

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(CNN) -- The BBC reported on its Web site Tuesday it was checking a tape purportedly from the kidnappers of the BBC's Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, sent to the al-Jazeera television network.

The video "includes certain demands and shows pictures, including one apparently of Mr. Johnston's identity card," according to the BBC report.

It was delivered to al-Jazeera in Gaza, the BBC said, and was made by a group calling itself Jasish-e-al-Islam, or The Army of Islam.

Johnston, 44, was kidnapped at gunpoint March 12 in Gaza. (Full story)

Last month, a previously unknown militant group calling itself the Tawad and Jihad Brigades faxed a statement to various news agencies saying he had been killed. (Full story)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, however, said Palestinian intelligence indicated he was still alive. (Full story)

The BBC said those who have appealed for the release of Johnston include British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Johnston joined the BBC World Service in 1991 and has spent eight of the last 16 years as a correspondent, including periods in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, the BBC said.

Since 2004, 15 journalists, including Johnston, have been abducted by gunmen in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. All the others were released unharmed, usually within days of their kidnapping. Johnston has been held in captivity longer than any other journalist abducted in Gaza.

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