NYTimes and Wikipedia Save Reporter’s Life By NOT Reporting On His Capture

Earlier this week, New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped from a
Taliban prison. He had been a Taliban hostage for the last seven
months, but the general public had absolutely no clue. In a joint
effort by The New York Times and Wikipedia, the story was kept quiet
until his daring escape.

In November 2008, Rohde was captured and held hostage by the Taliban,
along with a local reporter, Tahir Ludin, and their driver, Asadullah
Mangal. But until he managed to escape, most of the general public had
absolutely no clue. To prevent Rohde's value in the eyes of his
captors from rising, the New York Times kept more than 35 major news
organizations from reporting on the story. They believed that the
publicity from reporting his capture would inflate the value of
Rohde's life, increasing the difficulty of negotiating for Rohde's
release. Keeping 35 news organizations quiet was actually not the hard
part - but staving off Wikipedia users from publishing the news? That
was a bit trickier.