[WikiEN-l] Another Media and Wikipedia blackout on NYT reporter in Afghanistan

[Fred Bauder]

Would you have us do different?

Fred

> Folks,
> From the Huffington Post:
>
> "Last November, David Rohde was kidnapped in Afghanistan and held for
> several months, before managing to escape with his interpreter. Media
> around
> the world, at the request of the *Times*, kept silent about the
> kidnapping,
> and later drew criticism for this from some quarters. It has just
> happened
> again -- with my magazine, *Editor & Publisher*, among those not writing
> about it -- in the case of another well-known *New York Times*reporter in
> Afghanistan, but for a much shorter period of time.
>
> Stephen Farrell, with his aide Sultan Munadi, were seized on Saturday and
> freed just hours ago in a daring raid by British commandos. Munadi and a
> commando were killed. Farrell is fine.
>
> I saw some indications that Farrell had been snatched in my regular Web
> searches for media scoops over the weekend. As in the case of Rohde, a
> handful of not prominent blogs, along with very scattered media abroad
> (in
> their original language) reported that something was up, but confirmation
> was slight, given the silence of the *Times* and U.S. military.
>
> This went on for two days, as I kept searching -- and finding that, once
> again, the media apparently were not rushing anything into print or
> online.
>
> Also, as in the case of Rohde, I noticed that Farrell's Wikipedia entry
> had
> been scrubbed -- some user kept trying to post the kidnapping and the
> "news"
> kept getting deleted, before the entry was put under "protected" status
> and
> the cat and mouse game stopped. You can see it in the "history" there
> along
> with complaints of this "censorship crap" occurring again. "
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/again-media-and-wikipedia_b_280233.html
>
> Given the lack of reliable sources, the removal of information on the
> kidnapping seems justified. His article is here.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Farrell_(journalist)
>
>
> Regards
>
>
> *Keith*
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