Johnston to present 'Correspondent'

Alan Johnston has been named as the new presenter of From Our Own Correspondent for the BBC World Service.

Johnston was held for 114 days after being kidnapped in Gaza last year. He has previously written a number of dispatches for the long-running programme and last October, an entire edition was given over to his ordeal.

"I hope that the show might benefit from having a regular presenter, and one who has both contributed to it and been a fan for many years," said Johnston. "The structure of the programme will stay the same however – the extraordinarily successful FOOC formula would be very hard to improve."

Kate Adie will continue to present the Radio 4 version of the programme.