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Michael Yon: Hostages |
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Monday, 16 November 2009 |
pemMichael Yon/emstrongbr /16 November 2009/strong/p
pWhen emNew York Times/em journalist David Rohde was kidnapped last year in Afghanistan, the company engaged in a painstaking effort to squash the story. They succeeded in persuading major media who learned of the kidnapping to keep quiet. The cover-up was so good that a emNew York Times/em reporter I spoke with in December 2008, while she and I joined Secretary Gates on a trip through Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq and back to the United States, had not heard about the David Rohde kidnapping./p
pThe emNew York Times/em openly agrees that a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/africa/30pirates.html?_r=3amp;scp=1amp;sq=collettamp;st=cse" target="_blank"publishing/a such articles increases the peril to the lives of hostages, yet it published details about a British couple being held hostage in Somalia, and thus increased the value of the hostages to the kidnappers./p
pSome months after Mr. Rohde’s kidnapping started leaking, I published a generic blurb about the case, but made sure none of the information was new./p
pI knew more than was included in the vignette, but chose not to release it. I did not share what sources had told me: that Taliban members were being paid large sums of money (and that money was being wasted) and that some of the efforts flowed through Dubai. I have not published any other additional information from sources. Shortly after publication, March 13, 2009, I received an e-mail that included this request from a person close to Rohde:/p
blockquote
p“The NYT has asked for a news blackout while they do what they can for David Rohde's release. All the wires and the big papers are following it. Therefore, while I'm sure you don't mean any harm, I'm not sure your post about him is helpful.”/p
/blockquote
pThe person who e-mailed was not from the emNew York Times/em. I removed the blub I had posted to my site. Though no new information was released, I had offered the kidnappers more coverage./p
pSources continued sending reports about attempts to repatriate Rohde. I had not sought out this information. It had fallen as it usually does, like rain./p
pAfter Rohde returned to the United States and details became public, the emWashington Post/em and others contacted me about my decisions to publish and then remove the vignette. My thoughts were that if the words risked the life of Mr. Rohde, they should not be publicized./p
pWhile reading the emNew York Times/em’ article about read
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